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Eddie Chikamhi Senior Sports Reporter

IS Norman Mapeza the greatest coach of our time in the Zimbabwe Premiership football?

This sounds like a rhetorical question but if we go by the popular saying “a coach or athlete is only as good as his last success”, then Mapeza is miles ahead of competition.

He has just completed a magnificent campaign with four-time Castle Lager Premiership champions, FC Platinum. Mapeza has been heavily involved in this magnificent four-peat, which started in 2017.

The former Zimbabwe international is favourite to be crowned 2022 Coach of the Year at the Soccer Stars of the Year banquet next Friday in Harare.

Zimbabwe Soccer Coaches Association chairman Bheki Nyoni said Mapeza has proven himself over the years, having won his first title with Monomotapa in 2008 and then repeating the feat with FC Platinum in 2017, 2018 and recently in the 2021/2022 season.

“The capabilities of a coach are seen in his achievements. You can’t be a good coach when you don’t have medals to show for it,” said Nyoni.

“Before we speak of FC Platinum, Norman won his first league title with Monomotapa, who were just an ordinary team. That on its own speaks volumes about his capabilities.

“Like him or hate him, he is the best we have in Zimbabwe at the moment. If a coach can only be as good as his last success, then look, what he has achieved surpasses everyone in the last few years,” said Nyoni.

Mapeza now has four league titles in all. It could have been five had he not left FC Platinum in a huff just before the conclusion of the 2019 season.

Mapeza had joined the Zvishavane side in 2014 when he replaced Lloyd Mutasa and helped transform the game in the mining town of Zvishavane. He has also brought to Zvishavane two Chibuku Super Cup titles in 2014 and 2019.

“One thing that is clear is that Norman is a hard worker. He is very particular about everything he does. He is firm and no one can push him around.

“Of course he is one of the best, he and the likes of Sunday Chidzambwa. These are people who are serious about their football. They research a lot and they know what they want to achieve and how to go about it.

“There is also a lesson to be learnt here by football administrators. The coach doesn’t win things alone. He needs support from all stakeholders and I am sure he has been getting all that at FC Platinum,” said Nyoni.

The former Galatasaray man also earned himself two Coach of the Year accolades in 2017 and 2018. A third is loading.

Soccer Coaches Union of Zimbabwe secretary-general Newsome Mutema hailed Mapeza’s transformation of domestic football.

“Mapeza has infused his football philosophy well and FC Platinum are probably one of the best teams when it comes to passing football in the country.

“You can see by their pattern of play that this team is being coached well.

“The other thing about him is that he is a no-nonsense guy, a disciplinarian who is good at player management.

“His recruitment policy is also good. He knows what he wants at a particular time. We were all trying to understand why he had to let go of some of his experienced players like Kelvin Madzongwe, who had just returned from AFCON but the results were there to show,” said Mutema.

He also said Mapeza was a beneficiary of sound administration at FC Platinum.

“The institution has invested a lot in this project. Even the welfare of the players shows it’s one of the best run teams and it makes the job easier for the coach.

“There is a lot of stability and this is a team that can attract the best players on the land because of that.

“It’s unlike the environment at a team like CAPS United where players are always up in arms over unfulfilled promises.”

Mutema also admired the patience demonstrated by the FC Platinum leadership, who extended a long rope to Mapeza before the club started winning titles.

He said local coaches are often put under undue pressure because clubs demand instant results when they do not invest much.

“Of course coaching at this level is results-oriented. You have to have clear goals and targets. Some coaches want instant results because they want to please their masters, who are difficult to please anyway.

“When they sit down with the executives they end up agreeing to some unrealistic targets.

“So they look for shortcuts just to win games but with nothing in place to sustain the future. They keep recycling the tried and tested players at the expense of the youngsters who could be future national team players and the nation suffers in the long run.

“When coaches sign contracts they need to see to it that they are protected. They need to consult legal experts. Sadly, most of these guys do not want to do so.

“At the end you will see that most of these contracts favour the employer more than the employee.  And these are the guys that call the shots. Their policies are counter-football development.

“The people in administration are not rooted in football.

“Many of them are there because of passion and influence in other spheres of life but without the relevant technical and administrative expertise in football.

“Many a times there are no proper structures to support the technical personnel, who are the coaches.

“That’s why you see they struggle to woo sponsors and when it comes to signing players they sign one-year deals and every season the coach is rebuilding. You can’t produce results in such an environment,” said Mutema.