Mkuruva sets up academy in US
UNITED States-based former Zimbabwe international Tatenda Mkuruva says the tough road he travelled in his career has spurred him to start his own football training academy at his base in Michigan.
The ex-DeMbare goalkeeper, who now plays for US third-tier side Michigan Stars, recently opened the doors to his TM Soccer Action in Detroit which offers specialised training to budding footballers.
He told Zimpapers Sport from his base yesterday that TM Soccer Action is dedicated to developing soccer players and improving their soccer skills, mainly goalkeeping, by helping them be “dominant” on and off the field.
“TM Soccer Action is a performance training sport organisation that I created and is dedicated to developing soccer players and improving their soccer skills, by helping them reach their full potential and be dominant on and off the field,” he said.
“Since I have passion for the sport (football), I find it easy in trying to help other athletes to excel using my experience and knowledge. It’s something that is in me to help other players, especially young kids, to reach their goals and excel both on and off the field.
“Why? Because it’s something that I didn’t experience as a kid growing up to have a sport facility where I can go work with a coach one-onone to improve my skills, agility, healthwise and nutrition… even having a oneon-one dialogue with a coach about things you need to work on and off the field. I didn’t get that.
“But TM Soccer Action offers oneon-one zoom meetings to talk about anything sport. The door is open for every athlete, but at the moment our target group are young kids up to college level. We are looking at professionals also to join in the long run.”
The 28-year-old started off his professional football career at Harare giants Dynamos while he was still a Form 6 student at Prince Edward High School in Harare.
A teenage Mkuruva became one of the youngest goalkeepers to play for DeMbare in 2013 understudying the late George Chigova and Artwell Mukandi.
His exploits at Dynamos and the exposure to international football did not go unnoticed as he was snapped up by Cape Town City in South Africa, after the AFCON 2017, to complement the Cape side’s goalkeeping department that already had experienced Shu-Aib Walters, Samora Motloung and Gershin Kock.
He played two years before moving to Buildcon FC in the Zambia Super League, where he spent one year. In 2019 he was unveiled at Michigan Stars.
Mkuruva kept 14 clean sheets to help Michigan Stars win their first National Independent Soccer Association league title at the end of the 2022 season.
But the club could not retain the title last season, losing the bragging rights to new kid on the block, Flower City Union.
Mkuruva believes if his younger version had received the expert training that he is offering at his academy, he could have gone a step further in his career. For that reason, he wants to set up a similar facility in Zimbabwe in the near future to give back to his home country. “For sure it’s something I would definitely consider back home in Zimbabwe because it’s something that I didn’t have experience of.
“I think if I had such opportunities like having a performance sport centre whereby you have one-on-one coaching sessions, I would have gone over the limit.
“I don’t think we do have a lot of performance soccer facilities in Zimbabwe where you see kids or professional athletes work on to improve their skills, nutrition/ health, maximising their performances, etc.
“So, we can talk about a lot of the things, but definitely God willing, I would try to set up something very similar to what TM Soccer Action is trying to be over this side,” said Mkuruva