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Tadious Manyepo

Sports Reporter

LOCAL football coaches are set for month-long attachment stints with clubs in Germany if they complete the German A Level Coaching Course which they have been invited to be part of in September.

The course is a follow up to the previous German B Level Certificate qualification that was held in Berlin in January last year where five Zimbabweans attended.

There were also participants from Madagascar, Seychelles, Zambia and Australia in the 12-day intensive course.

Some of the Zimbawean coaches, who took part in that course include Keith Elijah, a former Motor Action player and son to former Arcadia United great Cornelius Elijah, Panashe Kuzamba, Brighton Makwedza, Martin Zulu, Abdelghani Matib, Ted Ester and Said Abou. 

Local facilitator for the course, Phillip Zulu, said the course is recognised across the world.

“These coaching programmes are all intensive, detailed and comprehensively designed to project the dynamic systems of the German philosophy of defending, midfield constructs of top-flight football and offensive play,” said Phillip Zulu.

“The content of the course is a broad based approach on how their philosophy has evolved from their hardcore defensive styles that won them global tournaments like the World Cup, with solid and impeccable performances of grinding results to very small margins of goals conceded (1-0, 2-1, 3-1 and 3-2), to a more clinical offensive style that can hammer Brazilians in their home fortress at Maracana Stadium 7-1. 

“Our continuous professional development in terms of football learning how top modern coaching manuals are holistically influenced by constant change, should help to inspire most coaches who started this course last year and all those being enrolled, so that the quality of our local coaches improve tremendously. 

“The German philosophy curricular is consistent with what we witness in top European leagues as their Bundesliga league is heralded for producing world class talents that excite global audiences. 

“”This German A level certificate is an ongoing attempt to enroll more Zimbabweans and encourage them to adapt to the trends that are fast changing how the game is tutored to develop young players in top-flight professional football. 

“This course offers huge opportunities in attachments with top Bundesliga professional clubs so that the practical details of applying the modules learnt during the residential period, the highly qualified coaches working in these top clubs will deliver topics and subjects that have been tackled during the course. We have also invited former Zimbabwean national team captain and Premiership explosive winger, Peter Ndlovu, former Highlanders player Isaac Mbedzi, who is now based in Canada, and some few Zambian, Seychelles, Madagascar and Tanzanian coaches to enroll,” Phillip Zulu said.

He said they will continue facilitating for top-notch courses for Zimbabweans as they attempt to help improve the quality of the game in the country.

“At the end of the day, we want to see a product which is complete.

“We want to see our game improving and for that to happen, we need to have competent coaches who adopt modern trends and help implement them.

“We need to move with the times. The German A Level coaching course is one of the best across the world and it is recognised across the world.

“We ought to enrol in these courses and get a chance to be attached to big clubs and the lessons that we pick there will help us in a very long way.

“One thing that we all know is we have talent in Zimbabwe both at playing and coaching levels. What we just need is to acquire the right skills and try to implement them effectively in the field of play. That way, we will never go wrong.”

Several local coaches have since expressed interest in enrolling for the course whose pre-requisite is a CAF A Licence.