FOR the first time in eight years, Bulawayo giants Highlanders have no single player representing them on the 2017 Soccer Stars of the Year calendar.
BY TAWANDA TAFIRENYIKA
A panel of football writers, coaches as well as captains from all the Premier Soccer League clubs met in Harare on Tuesday to select the outstanding footballers in the just-ended campaign, but unsurprisingly there was no player from Highlanders, who made the cut after a dreadful campaign, which saw them finishing a distant sixth position on the final log standings.
The last time Bosso failed to contribute a player on the Soccer Stars of the Year calendar was way back in 2009, when Gunners, then led by Moses “Bambo” Chunga, won the championship.
Since then they have been contributing at least one player. In 2010, they had Menard Mupera and Joel Ngodzo, 2011(Rahman Kutsanzira and Graham Ncube), 2012 they had four players on the calendar, goalkeeper Ariel Sibanda, Masimba Mambare, Innocent Mapuranga and Muthulisi Maphosa.
In 2013, they had goalkeeper Munyaradzi Diya, 2014 (Arial Sibanda), 2015 (Knox Mtizwa) while Peter Muduhwa made it onto the calendar last term.
Only the top five teams contributed players on the calendar with champions FC Platinum having two, Rodwell Chinyengetere and Kelvin Moyo, while runners-up Dynamos had skipper Ocean Mushure and striker Christian Ntouba Epoupa.
Ngezi Platinum, who finished in third place, contributed the highest number with midfielder Tichaona Mabvura, defender Qadr Amin and striker Terrence Dzukamanja all making it onto the calendar.
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Chicken Inn, who finished in fourth place, contributed two with defender Moses Jackson and Clement Matawu on the list. Harare giants, Caps United, who ended the season on fifth place, also had two, with striker Dominic Chungwa, who finished as the top scorer with 17 goals and midfielder Devon Chafa.
There had been optimism that Highlanders would go all the way and mount a challenge on the championship after they hired Dutchman Erol Akbay last season to turn around the fortunes of the team.
Akbay finished third in his first year and hope was that he would improve this year having familiarised himself with the environment.
It looked like he would deliver the title that has eluded this giant for a long time, as Highlanders flew out of the blocks, but somehow lost their way as the championship race progressed following the departure of several of their stars including Mtizwa and Prince Dube, who moved to South Africa while Rodreck Mutuma switched to Yadah FC.
In the end they could only manage a seventh-place finish with 47 points, a massive 25 points behind champions FC Platinum.
