NORMAN Mapeza is hopeful of finally winning the coach of the year award after guiding FC Platinum to a maiden league title after an intriguing race that concluded last Saturday.
BY TAWANDA TAFIRENYIKA
The former Warriors captain won his first league title with modest Monomotapa in 2008, but was omitted from the candidates list for disciplinary reasons.
Mapeza had won the league title with a game to spare, and was the odds-on favourite to land the award had it not been for a nasty incident in which he was involved in a fistfight with a Buffaloes supporter, popularly known as Jesus, during that campaign.
The award was eventually won by Philani “Beefy” Ncube after he guided Njube Sundowns to a third place finish behind second-placed Dynamos then under the guidance of David “Yogi” Mandigora.
But after leading the platinum miners to their maiden championship, edging Dynamos by two pints and becoming the first coach since 1966 to guide a team from outside the country’s two biggest cities Harare and Bulawayo, to win the title, Mapeza believes he deserves to get the gong.
“I am still disappointed that I have not won the coach of the year award. When I won the championship with Monomotapa, I was not presented with the award because I had fought with someone. It’s something that I still hope to win. It’s an honour to win such an award and hopefully I win it this time around,” Mapeza said.
Mapeza’s biggest challenge is likely to come from Dynamos coach, Lloyd Mutasa, who defied the odds to lead his under-strength team to second position.
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A panel of football writers, coaches and captains from all the Premier Soccer League clubs met in Harare on Tuesday where they voted for the best coach of the year.
Also voted for were the 11 outstanding footballers from the past season, the best goalkeeper and the promising young player of the year.
While the identities of the 11 finest players were revealed, the other categories were kept under wraps and will only be revealed at a banquet on December 8.
Mutasa is credited with building a team from scratch with meagre resources, where he had to conduct trials, yet he still came out with a force that was only pipped on the last day of the season. For that, some believe he is the right man for the award.
But the fact that Mapeza managed to turn the domestic game on its head to ensure a shift in the balance of power after a lengthy dominance by teams from the big cities could have twisted the vote in his favour.
Mapeza has since 2014, when he took over from Mutasa, been coming close to winning the championship but often failed at the last hurdle, but his tenacity and great ambition eventually paid off this year.
