The new Kaizer Chief

ball talent amid reports he is also eyeing CAPS United striker John Zhuwawu, whose last-minute bid to join South African Premiership side Maritzburg United collapsed.

He seems to have borrowed a leaf from Kazier Motaung’s success model after the Johannesburg businessman invested in a number of Zimbabwean players, including Willard Katsande and Knowledge Musona in recent years, for his Kaizer Chiefs football project

Warriors defender Teenage Hadebe has also established himself as a regular in the Amakhosi, who have retained winger Edmore Chirambadare, while signing divorce papers with forward Michelle Katsvairo.

The immortal Ebson “Sugar’’Muguyo blazed the trail in the ‘70s and since then a number of Zimbabweans — Rabson Muchichwa, Ovidy Karuru, Matthew Rusike, Kingston Nkhatha, Lincoln Zvasiya, Jimmy Jambo, Thomas Sweswe, Abbas Amidu, Tinashe Nengomasha and Onismor Bhasera — have played for Chiefs.

Buildcon FC were promoted into the Zambian top-flight league last year and club president Mubanga, who is also the chief executive and founder of Buildcon Investments, had to deal with reports in that country the club was owned by Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote of Nigeria.

“We know nothing about Dangote as earlier said, I own and sponsor the team through my construction company called Buildcon Investments,’’ he told soka25east. com.

“Absolutely no connection at all with Dangote.’’

Buildcon Investments employ more than 800 people and are the company who won the tender for the construction of the Chingola/ Solwezi road in Zambia.

Mubanga’s team usually had 95 percent of foreign players in their team during their debut season in the Zambian top-flight league last year and Mubanga says talent, rather than nationality, will determine who plays for his team this year as they bid to win the league title.

“We all recall that there was a lot of noise in terms of the composition of the team and people had a lot of different views about the constituents, or the members of the Buildcon FC team,” Mubanga told the Zambian media in a briefing in Ndola earlier this month.

“I think one of the most important things that came out was that we were not paying attention to the local players.

“But we did explain that when we started, very few local players had the confidence in the team, but at the end of the 2017 season, we have definitely upped our profile and are more attractive.

“We have now seen a lot of players attracted to join us and therefore the premonition that Buildcon does not want to bring Zambian players is something that is changing slowly.

“We have done better this year, but we still maintain the same philosophy that the most important thing is your performance and not where you are coming from.

“So in other words, what we are trying to say is that we have taken an initiative of bringing in more Zambians.

“But being a Zambian in the team doesn’t mean that you are guaranteed to play. You need to work hard and compete with everybody.

“If we want to be champions at the end of 2018, we must start acting like one now and we must start talking like champions for 2018. The journey starts now.’’