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Eddie Chikamhi Sports Reporter
BARELY one year after his acrimonious exit from the football scene, former Dynamos skipper Murape Murape is rekindling his love for the game by going back to the grassroots, where it all started.

The 35-year old believes “the football journey should continue” as he is now involved with The Heritage Football Academy in a junior development project that is targeting children between the ages of five and 18.

The academy is hosted at The Heritage School in Harare. The academy opened its doors last week and has classes for both boys and girls.

Murape has been keeping a low profile since the beginning of the season when he was told by the authorities at the Glamour Boys to pack his bags even without a ceremony to honour his glittering career with the Harare giants.

He won a record won six titles since 1997 when he joined them as a schoolboy.

“The journey has to continue. I think I did my part as a player and now I have to help advance the game in a different capacity. I have been doing some coaching badges and I worked with Kutama College before I met these guys from The Heritage School.

“From our discussion, we found out that we shared the same vision. They are a school that is always aiming for excellence in whatever they do so we decided to give it a go by forming the academy,” said Murape.

Now a holder of a Level One Coaching certificate, Murape is aiming to advance his coaching qualifications.

He does not rule out the possibility of coaching in the Premiership in the future but his passion at the moment is on the grassroots.

Many former Premiership players like Alois Bunjira, Stanley Chirambadare, Maronga Nyangela and Moses Chunga have taken the same route as they feel there is a gap which needs to be filled for the betterment of Zimbabwean football as clubs these days are not investing much in junior development.

Murape started his career with the Dynamos juniors in the mid-1990s as a raw teenager.

“Our goal is to build a strong foundation for the current and future success of our football players. Personally I feel it is important to invest in grassroots. That is where some of us came from.

“I started playing football at a tender age and grew through the ranks to the top. There were people then who guided and moulded us into the players we eventually became.

“Clubs then had vibrant junior structures and it was not surprising to see players breaking into the Premiership at 16. It was a healthy situation. But you can hardly see it today.

“Most of our clubs are no longer interested in developing their own players and they end up having a pool of mediocre and unrefined talents.

“Yet those talents could have been polished if they had been discovered at an early age when the child is still open to learning new things.

“So this project is aimed wholly at developing the next generation of footballers who should be able to represent the country with distinction in the future. We are doomed if we don’t come up with initiatives such as these,” said Murape.

To kick-start the project, Murape has roped in football coaches at The Heritage School and are looking to grow with more experienced coaches joining them in the near future.

The project is run by The Heritage School. Murape believes they have the proper facilities at the school and the support from the school authorities to achieve their goals.

“We don’t just teach football drills, it’s a whole package that involves a professional approach to sport, football in particular.

“We want to prepare players for top-flight football and also for international trials in professional set-ups.

“We have about 20 kids at the moment but the number is set to increase.

“The doors are open to everyone who meets the age requirements, it’s not about the pupils at The Heritage.

“We aim to give the children time for school activities so we train Friday afternoons, Saturday whole day and Sunday afternoons.

“We are still working on plans to have holiday lessons,” said Murape.