Nakamba’s move to Villa a breath of fresh air

THE entry of Marvelous Nakamba into the English Premiership signals the birth of a new era for Zimbabwean football, considering the midfielder is a product of Bantu Rovers.

Bulawayo has been the epicentre of high-profile football talent production over the years.

Peter Ndlovu was the first African professional footballer in the modern English Premiership at a very young age of 17.

We have had Bruce Grobbelaar with Liverpool and Benjani Mwaruwari trekking in to the revival of Manchester City.

These are all Bulawayo athletes who never dreamt of hitting headlines in one of the most entertaining top European football leagues.

This is an extraordinary feat that the City of Kings has achieved.

Nakamba is a chip off the old block, coming from the stable of Methembe Ndlovu, who was a student of the beautiful game under Ali Baba.

Methembe has steadfastly constructed an axis of junior football development that resonates well with minimum international demands and expectations.

Talk of the likes of Teenage Hadebe and Kuda Mahachi. The joys of Bulawayo City are abundant, the gains of Zimbabwean football are huge as we hope to watch and follow Nakamba and Aston Villa in the English Premiership fixtures.

Our gains as a nation are intrinsic and highly pronounced.

It’s hard to digest how a simple man like Methembe Ndlovu can navigate the murky waters of junior football development in Zimbabwe where such a philosophy is not considered important by apologists of the knowit-all brigade. I can only wonder what could have happened if sanity had prevailed and Methembe Ndlovu was handed a role among the Warriors coach at the recent AFCON finals.

I rue the day I suggested to some senior guys at ZIFA that Methembe has got a good football brain and nothing has been done up to this day.

Nakamba has revived our deep love for the English Premiership with his move to Aston Villa and we patiently hope that he will impose himself well.

All he needs is to work extra hard and quickly adapt to the physical side of this highly-competitive league.

When such high-profile signings start taking place, we should rejoice and expect that our own Nakamba will be playing against some of the best players in world football.

Let us all emulate Methembe Ndlovu and Nigel Munyati of Aces Youth Soccer Academy, who have led the way in developing talent.

When I hear people discuss and talk of who should be our football strategic planning team and coaches in Zimbabwe, these two have proved they have it in abundance and, as such, they deserve to lead us.

Nakamba will definitely be key in our dreams of qualifying for the Qatar World Cup 2022.

We can do it if we build our team around Tendayi Darikwa, MaCaulay Bonne, Martin Mapisa, Khama Billiat and a host of new upcoming young talent slowly rising in lower leagues of top European football.

After all, Madagascar showed us the way at the recent AFCON.