The ManicaPost
Moffat Mungazi
AS the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League season meanders towards the business end, a panel of adjudicators will convene for the traditional Soccer Star of the Year selection ceremony to crown the crème de la crème of the domestic game.
Over the past years the annual rite has been a contentious issue fraught with discontentment that usually stirs controversy and has usually sharply divided opinion, perhaps owing to tacit club loyalty or furtive affiliation and regional lines among the selectors.
Only recently a similar event, The Best FIFA Football Awards, endured its fair share of criticism – justified or otherwise – and the popular Ballon d’Or ceremony, set for December 3 in Paris, France, is likely to suffer the same fate.
In spite of all the hullabaloo, we still eagerly look forward to such ceremonies which come and go every season and generate several talking points. As such, the 11 stars whose soccer skills shone the brightest and illuminated our local scene will be picked. And one player who has stood had and shoulders above the rest is reigning Soccer Star of the Year and defending champions FC Platinum attacker Rodwell Chinyengetere. He has been in imperious form, reproducing last term’s sparkling glow that saw him scoop the top gong. Most things have gone his way so far – leading the goal-scoring charts; pushing Pure Platinum Play’s title tilt in a quest of the defence of their championship; and, crucially, consistency over the season. He is outshining the rest and has simply been the best.
Chinyengetere presently leads the goal charts with 15 strikes to his name and widely tipped for the Bolden Boot award.
Curiously, over the recent past most winners of the prestigious prize appear to sink into oblivion and seldom repeat the feat to claim another stake and place among the finest on the esteemed soccer stars “calendar.”
But not with Rodwell Chinyengetere!
Last season Rodwell rode well, has ridden on very well again this term and continues to ride high.
Already, he has improved on his net-banging exploits of last season – during which he had a haul of only nine goals – and is set to surpass 2017 top scorer Dominic Chungwa’s harvest of 17, with five games to go in 2018.
Chinyengetere has been impressive in the last five games for the platinum miners, finding the target eight times in a run that yielded three victories, a draw and a loss for the championship-chasing side. He is hugely benefiting from the continuity of having stayed put at the Zvishavane team, which has been key to his continued progress and development.
Rody’s form has been difficult to ignore that this week he even enjoyed a run in the Warriors’ 2019 Africa Cup of Nations Group G qualifier against Democratic Republic of Congo at the National Sports after being drafted into the squad as a replacement for suspended skipper and striker Knowledge Musona. He earned his call-up on merit that Warriors team manager Wellington Mpandare was quoted as telling local media, “We decided to call up Rodwell because he is doing very well for FC Platinum. He has been scoring goals of late and it’s only right that we give him a chance and see what he has to offer for the national team,” in acknowledgement of the forward’s hot streak.
If Rodwell Chinyengetere helps FC Platinum retain the crown with his explosive exploits, then his place among this season’s finest footballers should be also guaranteed. It is absolutely him and 10 others for the 11 finalists of this season’s Soccer Star of the Year awards.
If Rodwell Chinyengetere retains his spot on the “calendar” then he will join industrious and seasoned Chicken Inn midfielder Clement Matawu as the only player to repeat that feat in the recent past. Matawu has made the finalists list between the 2015 and 2017 seasons consecutively.
Well, ardent reader, who are you tipping to make the Soccer Star of the Year finalists roll?
If it is about football that you care let’s share the cheer because we are made for the game, mad about the game!
Feedback:
It is disingenuous to tell us that Highlanders and CAPS United will be like orphans when Dynamos get relegated. In the spirit of Fair Play, no team should donate points for its neighbor to survive the chop. That is against the spirit of football. A team should be in the PSL by its ability to compete to stay in the league and not by the number of supporters and sympathisers. – Richard Mahuhushe Chauke.
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