The Sunday News
Mehluli Sibanda, Senior Sports Reporter
FORMER Zimbabwe Warriors defensive midfielder, Esrom Nyandoro feels that the standard of football in the Castle Lager Premier Soccer has gone down, as witnessed by local players failing to command first team places at South African sides.
Nyandoro spent some time in the country last week scouting for talent for Mamelodi Sundowns. He watched a couple of matches and was left disappointed with what he saw. Nyandoro watched Chicken Inn-Shabanie Mine, Bulawayo City-Ngezi Platinum Stars and Highlanders-FC Platinum.
What disheartened the former Warriors captain the most was watching a big team like Highlanders fail to complete passes when they played against FC Platinum last Sunday. The “Yellow man” was, however, impressed with FC Platinum’s display with his wish being that other local teams could play like them.
“I think we can improve, the only way is to go back to the basics, let’s go back to playing a passing game. I saw boys who failed to pass, you can’t have teams failing to string five passes. People must not be afraid to play football. Watching a big team like Highlanders failing to string five passes is really disappointing,’’ Nyandoro said.
A championship winner with the now defunct AmaZulu in 2003, Nyandoro went on to make a huge impression at Sundowns when he joined the Brazilians in 2004 and spent 11 years at the Pretoria-based club. He points to the number of local players who have recently joined South African clubs where they have either failed to command first team jerseys or returned home.
“When was the last time we had a player going to the big teams and play regularly. We have Pfumbidzai playing at Celtics. We had two players signed by Kaizer Chiefs from Chicken Inn but they failed to live up to expectation. Milton (Ncube) signed by Ajax, where is he now? National team goalkeeper signed but not playing, the list is endless. It shows our standard, I believe sometimes we fool ourselves, we are not honest. If we agree we will be able to face our problems,’’ Nyandoro said.
He was impressed by a number of players whom he believes can make it to the Absa Premiership but have to work hard.
Nyandoro has aspirations to coach in Zimbabwe but could not be drawn to name the club he would like to take charge of.
“I was asked if I would come back to Zimbabwe to coach, I said yes. At the moment I cannot say which club I want to coach,’’ he said.
Since he became a scout at Sundowns a few months ago, Nyandoro has found it tough as he has not yet brought any first team player to Sundowns but has only found developing stars.
“It’s tough scouting, I have brought a couple of development players to Sundowns but none for the first team,’’ Nyandoro said.
After such wise words from one of the country’s most decorated footballers, it is yet to be seen if local clubs and their coaches will take heed.
— @Mdawini_29
