By Tendai Chisiri
Yestyear footballers are held in high esteem for being experienced in sport and their involvement in grass roots junior development like England- based Zimbabwean coach Phillip Zulu is healthy to the sport.
Grassroots junior development is pivotal to professional football clubs together with academies, the difference being the former is affordable than the latter but all serve in the development of junior players into professional players.
Phillip Zulu has made tremendous progress in grassroots junior development with his Super Eagles Futsal/FC program.
The England- based Zimbabwean coach was enthusing in a telephone interview about how things had worked out. Unfortunately he was injury prone during his junior glory days .Unlike other grassroots junior development programs in UK by fellow Zimbabweans which are factoid, his is a real thing with youngsters progressing to senior teams.
In an interview with Shashasportonline, the down to earth coach narrated how he didnot make it into the local top-flight league due to injury although he rubbed shoulders with soccer greats at junior level.
Born and bred in Harare, Phillip Zulu went to Rusvingo Primary School and Kwayedza High School in Highfield. He started playing soccer at a tender age up to secondary school where he ended playing alongside top emerging talents from Caps Utd FC, with the likes of Oscar ‘Simbimbino’ Motsi, Tidings Keta, Clement ‘Dingale’ Tongesai, the lates Crispen ‘Ndola’ Sibanda, George ‘Beefy’ Mandizvidza, Smart ‘Mingola’ Mukwena and many others from clubs like Rio Dairibord and Black Aces.
He later played for Lornho Zimbabwe FC the then Division 2 club as a 15- year- old.From the tough lower division of football, he joined the vastly talented Caps Utd juniors in Glen- Norah under the tutelage of the late Alois Patsika.
He was quickly enrolled to play with the likes of the lates Tobias ‘Dholonso’ Sibanda, Never Chakwata, Fortune ‘Toivo’ Pfunde, Chaka Mabhutsu, Watson ‘Wasu’ Sarupinda and many others.
He had a crunch tackle on the left knee by an opponent player that was more intentional and was a set back to his career.
When he came back from injury, he had a knock on the left knee.That ruined his come back when he was invited to join Dyanamos at the Harare Postals.Dynamos had the likes of Max ‘Skara’ Makanza, Lloyd Mutasa, Manzini Siwela, Ralf Kawondera, Charles Mukandi, and the late George Usayi at that time.
He also joined Black Aces, his local side in Highfield but managed to spent a season as he was struggling with injuries.
“The greatest thing to happen to me was to coached by my childhood hero, the late Archiford Chimutanda who really liked my technical skills”, he said.
He quickly hung his boots in 1991 due to a nagging left knee injury that suffered torn ligaments after clashing with the late Rio Tinto legend, Gilbert Phiri.
After taking a long break from football, he started coaching a team composed of immigrants in Leeds when he went England.
His passion for soccer made him get enrolled for a coaching course in 2002.In 2005, he was the first African to land a post as a scout at Leeds Utd FC Academy.
He met Tendayi Darikwa playing in Leeds whilst watching his son playing for Schools Academy. However, although he wanted Darikwa to turn up for the Under 17 Zimbabwe national team, his efforts were futile. Darikwa was 16 years old at that time but there was communication breakdown with the then Zifa CEO Henrietta Rushwaya. Also Bradley Pritchard who was playing for Charlton FC in English Championship was seconded to play for Zimbabwe but there was sabotage as the foreign brigade were not liked in the national team.
His project Super Eagles Futsal/FC was growing such that time in 2012 they had probably the largest number of junior teams in UK.They have managed to send many young players for trials with different academies such as Manchester City FC, Sheffield Utd FC and some got signed with various clubs. He is the person behind Diaspora Brigade that has produced the likes of Macaulay Bonne, Seth Patrick, Nydam Tristan, Brandon Galloway, Sharma Bank, Mikaeel White and many others.
“One of our former Futsal player Clark Odour who plays for Barnsley FC first team , has now established himself as a full international player with Harambee Stars of Kenya as he made his debut some 6 weeks ago”, he said.
“We also have Semir Idriss who now plays for Slaska Wroclaw in Poland and also for Eritrea national team”, he added.
“Since 2003, when I started engaging in intensive coaching programs that seek to develop talents at junior levels, I have always dreamt that one day Zimbabwe shall qualify for the World Cup in our lifetime and without doubt, Qatar World Cup 2022 is a mission statement implicity clear and attainable’ , he assured.
Super Eagles Futsal/FC is a grassroots junior development organisation that deals with both football and futsal. They have Under 12,14 and 16 teams in football whilst Futsal is an open age affiliated with FA.So far, they are playing in the second division of the English National Futsal league and are one of the biggest Futsal teams the whole England.
Apart from grassroots junior development program, they also have a coach education programme which started 15 years ago in UK.
Under the coach education programme, 5 Zimbabwean coaches have now qualified under the Berlin Football Federation as B level Certificate holders which is equivalent to the Uefa B licence.
“Last year,we had more than 3 coaches getting accredited for the Futsal Course program”, he said.
“To date, we can count more than 20 coaches that brings close to 10 Zimbabwean coaches in the coaching programme.We have more than 15 coaches qualified up to the B certificate level including other certificates of level 1 and 2.
As far as Zimbabwe is concerned, Phillip Zulu want to treasure the Samba, Tikki Takka and Street Football or better still Jogo Bonito as the legendary Pele called it in the country for the junior development under Futsal Curriculum.
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