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By Gilbert Munetsi
Former Warriors and Soccer Star of the Year, Japhet “Shotcat” Mparutsa believes Zimbabwe needs to retrospect and revisit its football youth policy if the country entertains any hopes of making a mark in continental competitions.His remarks comes on the backdrop of the Warriors’ early from the ongoing African Cup of Nations tournament in Cameroon despite edging Guinea 2-1 last night.
Zimbabwe was the first team to be booted out from Group B following successive defeats at the hands of Senegal (0-1) and Malawi (1-2).The UK-based Mparutsa said the answer to Zimbabwe’s woes lies in the revamping of youth structures from where those with potential are fed into the national team as was the case with his generation of the ’80s.
Arguably the best goalminder the country has ever produced, “Shotcat” was in the 1985 Cecafa winning Warriors team that featured the likes of Ephraim Dzimbiri, James Takavada, David Zulu, Joel Shambo, Stanley Ndunduma, David Mwanza, John Phiri and Edward Katsvere, among others.At only 19 years of age, Mparutsa was voted the 1982 Soccer Star of the Year.
Turning to the current crop and the state of the Warriors, he said:”We lost to Malawi and the focus will be on the coach. But can we look beyond the coach and do a root and branch analysis?
“Our football has been going down for a while. Qualifying for Afcon appears to have covered the cracks. However, the cracks are there to see and soon it will be the whole building collapsing.
“How was it possible (in the yesteryear) that we had a glut of so many good young players in most clubs who also played for the National Team? I became Zimbabwe’s first choice goalkeeper at 19. Why do we not have exciting young talent emerging from our league?”
The answer lies with the junior structures. We need a development plan to ensure we revive the age groups such as the U17, U20 and U23. We require full time coaches who work with the junior teams under the supervision of the National Coach.
“Coaches, he noted, ought to have enough time to visit teams and conduct coaching clinics while covering all corners of Zimbabwe.He chided benefactors who pamper the Warriors with houses and cash incentives, arguing the incentives should be channeled towards junior football development.
“How do you build a house without a foundation? The foundation are the schools, the junior teams and the Academies. These should be monitored to ensure that the proper football curriculum is being followed.
“The Football Leadership should be made up of people who care about football. People who want to see football development. There are many such leaders, we just need to give them a chance.
“What we used to do in the past allowed a lot of young players to emerge. It made teams like Dynamos, Highlanders and Caps United very strong and with that the league was very competitive . A strong league will feed into the National Team and we will compete again.
“With the Warriors, there is always hope which is quickly replaced by disappointment. But it is not too difficult to do the right thing,” he said.
Mparutsa said the dead structures needed to be revamped through a deliberate strategy because without one in place, the country should not expect miracles to happen. Nhau/Indaba
