Fungai Muderere
EX-PREMIER Soccer League players, deemed as spent forces, have found refuge in the country’s Division One football.
These players still love the game so much that they will now be kicking it about in the lower reaches of Zimbabwe’s football.
After carving their names in the famous Zebra-shirted Highlanders, the duo of Zephaniah Ngodzo and Obidiah Tarumbwa have committed to appear in Zifa Southern Region Division One side Talen Vision’s colours whose squad also features former Chicken Inn forwards Canaan Nkomo and Thomas Chimenya.
Ngodzo (35) and Tarumbwa (35) are one-time Zimbabwe internationals, who also enjoyed spells at Chicken Inn.
The latter also spent time on the books of Belgian first division team Cercle Brugge, Cypriot Second Division club Ermis Aradippou, Kenyan side Sofapaka and at South Africa’s University of Pretoria before he slowly worked his way down the pyramid in the last few years.
Tarumbwa even recently turned down his boyhood club — Bosso — for a possible emotional return.
“The player (Tarumbwa) is not moving to Bosso. Highlanders wrote to us but he is saying he is happy at Talen Vision. For now he wants to help the team achieve its goal of getting promoted into the Premier Soccer League,” said Talen Vision acting spokesperson Juma Phiri.
Another Southern Region Division One side, Mosi Rovers, will be hoping that the experience of nomadic veterans Darryl Nyandoro and Christopher Samakweri among a host of other former top-flight league players will help them take Premiership football to the resort town of Victoria Falls next year.
Coach Try Ncube got Bulawayo City promoted to the Premier Soccer League after clinching the Southern Division One title before he quit the local authority side at the beginning of the year where he tagged along Nyandoro (31) and Samakweri (35) together with Physwell Madhazi to Mosi Rovers.
Shotstopper Wellington Muuya makes a return to the Victoria Falls-based club after a stint with Highlanders.
Ex-Chicken Inn, Caps United and Bulawayo City’s Thabani “Dubula” Goredema, former Bulawayo Chiefs’ Takunda Muzuva — forgotten Blessing Sande and former Bantu Rovers forward McCarthy Dube are some of the players that have joined Mosi Rovers.
Midfield old warhorse, Simon “Yola” Munawa who was let go by Chicken Inn early this year, is now with Central Region Division One side TelOne.
The former Gamecocks and Bosso midfield maestro, now 33, signed for TelOne a few weeks ago to join a club that has national team coach Rahman Gumbo and celebrated Peter “Oxo” Nkomo in their technical team.
Ex-Hwange quartet of Felix Chindungwe (37), Ernest Gwitima, goalkeeper Prince Phiri and Kupakwashe Matake have joined another ambitious Central Region Division One outfit Sheasham.
Gweru-based Sheasham, which will be under the tutelage of John Nyikadzino, now also provides home to seasoned trio of Michael Mageja, Asani Nhongo and Musa Bude.
Former Dynamos midfielder Raphael Manuvire and ex-Caps United striker Honey Chimutimunzeve are part of a cast of ex-PSL players who have joined the trek to Shamva-based Division One side, Simba Bhora.
The newly-promoted Northern Region Division One League side, which recently appointed veteran Arthur Tutani as head gaffer, has reportedly also roped in former Black Rhinos, FC Platinum and Caps United forward Brian Muzondiwa.
The trio join former DeMbare strikers Quality Kangadzi and Richard Kawondera at the ambitious Shamva side, bank-rolled by 42-year-old businessman Simba Ndoro.
Forgotten Brighton Tuwaya, who played Caf Champions League football with Dynamos in 2008 to become a cult hero in the blue half of the capital, and Louis Matawu, who once had a stint with defunct sides How Mine and Motor Action, are reportedly some of the players with Premiership experience who are now based in Shamva.
