THREE budding youngsters from Mutoko rural were presented with a life changing opportunities after they were identified to attend development trials at Harare giants Dynamos.
The three impressed at the annual KB Kanyongo Football tournament held in Mutoko recently.
The tournament which is in its second year and is held in honour of the late Kanyongo, father to the coordinator Gideon, who now resides in United States was won by Dip FC following a convincing 4-0 victory over Kanyongo FC in the final.
Dynamos coach Tonderai Ndiraya was the guest of honour and was accompanied by his assistants Naison Muchekela and Gift Muzadzi while some football legends including former Rio Tinto goalkeeper Laban Kandi was also in attendance.
Ndiraya was impressed by what he saw and believes there is massive talent in rural areas that needs to be supported and adequately nurtured.
“Let me thank the Kanyongo family for staging a tournament of this magnitude, this is exactly what we want as coaches,” Ndiraya said.
“This was an organised tournament which afforded us an opportunity to see some talent. That’s the reason why we come here to represent our institution and that’s why I bring my assistant coaches – Muzadzi and Muchekela.
“I’m quite happy with what we observed. Muzadzi has identified a goalkeeper here and myself Muchekela have identified two infield players. We are going to talk to the orgnaisers of the tournament for these boys to come to Harare and have an experience of training with our team.”
The Glamour Boys, earlier this year signed a boy from rural Chipinge in Luke Musikiri which eventually opened doors for several other young players at the club like Bill Antonio, Hamilton Gomba among others.
“Dynamos is a people’s team and we want it to be represented from across the country. So if they come to train with us and make the grade, why not sign them? We have the first team and we also have a developmental side.
“So we can sign them for our development team. Of course this was a tournament but when they come over to Harare it will be a completely different level. It’s not just a matter of signing them, they will need to train and acclimatise to the environment and if they cope why not sign them?,” Ndiraya said.
Herdman Nyamutsahuni lauded the development saying it will put their community on the map.
“We are extremely delighted. It’s a huge development seeing our children impressing Dynamos coaches,” said Nyamusahuni.
“We hope they will go and make the grade and play for Dynamos and possibly the national team. We are indebted to the Kanyongo family for organising the tournament. Our hope is that kids from our community will be able to utilise this opportunity.”
Village head Faith Kanyongo said their main objective is to at least expose rural talent to the world.
“We want children from our community to be exposed out there. There are a lot of talented youngsters in our community but it’s difficult for them to be noticed. That is the reason we are inviting people like Dynamos coaches so that these kids can be identified,” she said.
The Kanyongo football tournament, which is sponsored by his eight children, has been praised for helping young kids to stay away from drugs while helping them concentrate on school.