The Sunday News
TWO Zimbabwean boys Tatenda Tumba and Tatenda Munditi will next month travel to Brazil for a six-day Copa Coca-Cola football camp that will see the budding footballers witness the opening ceremony of the global showpiece as well as the opening fixture between Brazil and Croatia.
Goalkeeper Munditi and midfielder Tumba were both part of the Chemhanza High School team, which won the Copa Coca-Cola Zimbabwe edition in Mutare last year.
They were drafted into the Copa Coca-Cola Dream Team which went for a training camp in South Africa where Zimbabwe were crowned champions. Tumba, Munditi and another player from Chemhanza Learnmore Muyambo were selected into the Copa Coca-Cola Africa All Stars team with Munditi being voted the best goalkeeper at the tournament while Tumba was crowned as the most outstanding midfielder while at the same time scooping the top goalscorer’s award with six goals for Zimbabwe at the tournament staged at the High Performance Centre in Pretoria.
Information obtained by this publication shows that the two promising footballers leave Zimbabwe on 8 June for the training camp which runs from 10 to 15 June. The training camp would be held on the outskirts of Sao Paulo. The two Zimbabwean boys would be part of the 150 participants from all over the world drawn from countries which use the Copa Coca-Cola concept. In Africa, besides Zimbabwe other countries sending their upcoming talent to the training camp are South Africa and Zambia.
On 12 June, Tumba and Munditi will witness the opening ceremony of the 2014 Fifa World Cup at the Corinthians Stadium in Sao Paulo which is going to be followed by the opening fixture of the tournament between the home team Brazil and Croatia.
The following day, the Zimbabwean youngsters will join players from other countries for the Copa Cola-Cola International Trophy where they would be divided into 10 teams. Brazilian football legend Bebeto is expected to present the winning teams with their trophies on 14 June which is when the finals of the tournament take place.
On the last day of the training camp on 15 June, the youngsters will take part in the Copa Coca-Cola legacy programme meant to prove that the competition is the world’s biggest and most inclusive football grassroots programme which contributes to more active and healthy generations.
Coca-Cola is one of the longest corporate partners of Fifa, with a formal association since 1974 and official sponsors of the Fifa World Cup which commenced four years later.
Meanwhile, the official launch of this year’s Copa Coca-Cola has been slated for 30 June at Chemhanza High School in Wedza which is the home of the boys defending champions. As per tradition, the official launch takes at the school which won the boys section of the tournament.
On the day of the official launch, the draw for both the Under-16 boys and Under-17 girls would be conducted for the national finals that will take place in Harare from 18 to 20 June.
Chemhanza of Mashonaland East, coached by Never Mhandu were crowned the boys champions with a 3-1 win over Howard High School while Chidyamakono from Masvingo were the girls champions after they beat Vainona 2-0 in the final. The final matches took place at Sakubva Stadium in Mutare.
