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By Ray Munyoro
From being a peripheral player under Pieter De Jongh, Bello was in the starting line-up as FC Platinum dismissed Costa do Sol 2-1 on Saturday.
Indications were that the defender was unlikely to even travel to Mozambique for the CAF Champions league had the Dutchman not left FC Platinum.
De Jongh, who separated with the club by mutual consent after CAF rejected a plea to give him a waiver to sit on the bench without a CAF A licence, did not have the defender as one of his priority players.
And in contrast, Mapeza highly regards the player, despite their past clashes with over disciplinary issues.
Speaking before the game, Mapeza said it was too early to judge “the right condition of all the players”.
“We just had three days with them. Will see what happens,” said the coach without getting into much detail.
Sources at the club indicated that Bello’s fall in the packing order was “not a natural dislike”, but he did not have the qualities that the Dutchman liked.
“He is short to start with and it is not easy for the player to have an immediate impact on a coach when the club is just training,” said an FC Platinum insider.
“His real impact comes in games. He is a big game player. And it is not always that players that perform well at training get to be good during games.”
Bello announced himself playing for Kiglon in the Premiership in 2010. He then became part of the great exodus to Dynamos in 2011 under Lloyd Mutasa.
Mutasa’s stint with Dynamos was short-lived, with Kalisto Pasuwa taking over and eventually winning the first of Dynamos’ four titles.
Both Bello and Patson Jaure were considered too short to be defenders, but their performance and impact at DeMbare was massive.
Bello was a key player in the first two of the four titles before being prized-away by FC Platinum.
While it is good news for Bello, fears are Mapeza, who is also a no-nonsense coach and sticks to his philosophy, could axe players that always play the long ball.
“Right from day one, he was again emphasising on the building from the back and not giving away possession. Nothing has really changed. It is either his way, or you ship out. For the guys that have been with the team, it was an automatic switch to avoid his wrath.”
Meanwhile, Mapeza has since revealed why he opted to return to FC Platinum.
“These guys approached me, I wasn’t doing anything at home. I said if you really want me to come back, then there is no problem, we can talk,” said Mapeza, speaking with ZTN.
“I told him if they can’t find someone who they want, they can come back and we talk.” Nhau/Indaba
