Shield, one of the leading deodorant and antiperspirant brands in the world has partnered English football giants, Chelsea Football Club, in the search for an upcoming football star from Zimbabwe, who will be presented with a lifetime opportunity to spend a day training with the London based club.
The program, which is open to both male and female between footballers between the ages of 18-25 years, will be supervised by four local coaches, Alois Bunjira, Calistos Pasuwa, Cosmos Zulu and Naison Muchekela, who upon completion of assessing the first batch of the 30 players, will come up with the winner.
The best player will then represent Zimbabwe in an Africa XI along with players from nine other countries. The Africa XI will then get a chance to go to England, spend a day at Cobham, the training ground of Chelsea FC.
Calistos Pasuwa (l) and Naison Muchekele, will form part of the four-team coaching staff that will select the winning player to represent Zim. (Pic by Munashe Chokodza)
The coaching clinic will also be attended by a team of Chelsea FC coaches.
In a speech read on his behalf the director in the Ministry of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation, Eugenia Chidhakwa, Minister Kazembe Kazembe applauded the partnership saying it opens door for Zimbabwean sports.
“It is really pleasing to note that this marriage between Unilever through their Shield Deodorant brand with Chelsea FC of England comes at a time when the country and particularly the sport and recreation sector is going through a re-engagement process with all support structures for the development of sport in the country.
“I am informed that this campaign aims to pluck and select talent from around Africa for a match against Chelsea FC legends with a view to the marketing Shield deodorant brand,” said Kazembe.
He, however, said the program should be extended to disadvantaged youths and those from marginalised areas so as to embrace inclusivity.
Zimbabwe has for a long time failed to produce good players that break into the European football arena.
Save for Peter Ndlovu, Benjani Mwaruwari and Bruce Grobbelaar, Zimbabwe has not produced any player that has lightened up the most watched football league in the world, the English Premier League (EPL)
This has largely been attributed to lack of a strong youth system, which has affected the national team at international platforms.
