A coronation seven years in the making!
Yadah live to fight another day
CONSIDERING the eight-year-long wait to reach the promised land, the two weeks it has taken Ngezi Platinum Stars to finally get their hands on their Castle Lager Premier Soccer League trophy has done very little to dampen the carnival atmosphere that has engulfed the Mhondoro-Ngezi area.
Ideally, Baobab Stadium would have provided a picture-perfect venue for their coronation, but alas, it is not so.
For now, Barbourfields will have to do. At the end of the match between Ngezi Platinum and Highlanders this afternoon, the iconic football stadium is set to explode into song and dance as the 2023 PSL champions finally get their hands on that trophy.
Arrangements have been made for 10 buses to ferry fans from Ngezi to Bulawayo, where the party, seven years in the making, will finally take place.
“There is joy and there is a celebration. “This is the first time any team from our province has managed to win the championship.
“Just imagine, a small place like Ngezi achieving this remarkable feat!
“It is really something special and we are so excited,” revealed Takawira Maswiswi, the Ngezi Platinum Stars club president.
Ngezi Platinum began their dance with top-flight football with a bang when they won the Chibuku Super Cup during their debut season back in 2016.
However, the league championship is the one trophy that has eluded them since.
The dry spell has resulted in the club investing millions of US dollars, all in the hope of reaching the promised land and winning the country’s most prestigious prize.
And, after their recent success during the 2022 PSL season, there are no regrets from the Ngezi Platinum side.
“Since inception, we have poured millions and millions of dollars into the team.
“I think we saw a team that was doing well within the community. We also saw an opportunity to write a good story within Ngezi using sport.
“We always had the philosophy that sport brings people together.
“And we genuinely felt that we had a good story here, one to tell for Ngezi using the football team.
“Our investment and faith in the club were not misplaced,” said the club president.
JOY . . . Ngezi Platinum Stars finally get their hands on the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League trophy after their match against Highlanders at Barbourfields this afternoon
It seems faith and confidence were not the only characteristics of Ngezi Platinum on its journey to the top.
It has also been a journey marked by impatience as the club employed as many as six coaches within a space of six seasons.
Ngezi made their debut with Kifton Kadurira, who had won them promotion, in charge.
He was fired after nine games following a poor start.
Former Dynamos coach Tonderai Ndiraya then took over in June 2016 and led Madamburo to the Chibuku Super Cup title.
Ngezi stunned FC Platinum 3-1 in that final, which was played at Baobab Stadium.
Unfortunately, the Mhondoro-based outfit finished seventh on the final log standings that season, 22 points behind champions CAPS United.
The following year, they finished third behind winners FC Platinum and Dynamos.
While they showed some form of progression under Ndiraya — going into the 2018 season in which they managed second position — the coach was strangely fired a few games before the end of that season.
Dutch mentor Elroy Akbay was then brought in for the 2019 season, but he, too, failed to last the distance.
He was replaced by Rodwell Dhlakama in September 2019.
They finished a distant fourth before losing controversially to Highlanders in the Chibuku Super Cup final.
Dhlakama was up next and he guided Ngezi to another Chibuku Super Cup final in 2021.
Sadly, he then left the club unceremoniously
in March 2022.
Takesure Chiragwi then took over as interim coach, but he lasted less than a month, before returning to his assistant coaching role when Benjani Mwaruwari was brought in the following month.
“Admittedly, we are a club that sets very high standards and high expectations,” said the club president.
“We are ambitious and aggressive in the way we run our club.
“We are patient in terms of our strategy bearing fruit, but not when a coach delivers outside our expectations.
“Our expectation may not necessarily have been about winning the championship at that time, but certainly they all had set targets,” said Maswiswi.
The club president also revealed that upon realising that spending money on players had not brought results, the club decided to take a different approach this term and put emphasis on their developmental systems.
With the new approach, it meant the club had to be patient with Chiragwi and winning the championship was not necessarily part of his 2023 targets.