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Phillip Zulu in LEEDS, England
THE imminent arrival of Macauley Bonne into the Warriors fold should be a massive boost for the national team ahead of the 2019 AFCON finals.

Bonne, who has featured for Zimbabwe in the past and scored during a friendly match against Morocco, is currently enjoying good form at Leyton Orient in their final push for automatic promotion back into England’s League 2.

I have never doubted Bonne. But, at times we fail to understand the huge demands of leading a strikeforce of a once-top club in English football that is strategically positioning its re-emergence into the top leagues.

I think he did the right thing by taking care of his club career and switch focus to international football at the right time.

I hope he plays a major part in helping Leyton Orient gain automatic promotion and then, fingers crossed, gets an invitation from Warriors head coach Sunday Chidzambwa. I pray his presence will be taken in a positive way, not as one who chose to join others now that qualification for Egypt has been secured, and will provide options for the coach.

We need Bonne more at this stage, and beyond, and he could become a key player for us in Egypt and in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers.

Looking at clubs who want to sign him, especially those in the English Championship, shows he is a quality forward. A number of potential national team players like Prince Bhebhe, Talent Ndlovhu (both formerly with Barnsley FC Youth & Reserves ), Brandon Fuyana (Bradford City FC Reserves) and Jonathan Fusco (Sheffield Wednesday FC Youth) are struggling with serious injuries.

I can declare that our work, in terms of developing young players in the Diaspora, has been productive and we can point to the likes of Jimiel Chikikwa, Ethan Kachosa (both Under-17s Leeds United Youth players), Bernard Makwedza (Rotherham United Youth), Arnold Ndiweni (Mansfield Town Youth), Phillip Mundenda (Hull City Academy), Tavonga Gumbochuma (York City Academy) and Martin Zulu (Schwanheim Germania 06 FC in German). All of these youngsters have been part of the early initiative by Nelson Matongorere.

We have Tawanda Mutoti and Luther Munakandafa, both at Nottingham Forest, Michael Ndiweni at Newcastle United Academy and others at Swansea and Bournemouth.