Sports / Soccer
Dynamos entice Denver Mukamba
27 Dec 2013 at 09:35hrs | Views
HARARE - It has emerged that Dynamos have made an offer to lure back their former talisman, Denver Mukamba, back to the club he left at the beginning of the year to join South African top-flight club Bidvest Wits.
The record 20-time Zimbabwean champions have lodged a loan offer with the Johannesburg outfit and are hopeful of tempting Mukamba back with the incentive of regular football and African Champions League exposure next year.
Sources to Daily News say although there is willingness and commitment on the part of both clubs and the player himself, financial loose-ends of the deal could prove a sticking a point.
Wits are believed to have asked for a loan fee in the region of $20 000.
Having struggled to make an impact at Wits, Mukamba, who is currently back home in Harare for the festive holidays, is understood to have initially made overtures to re-join the club which catapulted him to prominence since moving there from Kiglon at the beginning of 2011.
Regular first team action will also help Mukamba's cause in the lead up to the 2015 African Nations Cup qualifiers next year.
Zimbabwe, now under the stewardship of former international Ian Gorowa, are hoping to return to Africa's premier football showcase after missing out on the last four editions of the tournament.
"He (Mukamba) wants a loan deal that can see him back at Dynamos," said the highly-placed source.
"The coach (Gavin Hunt) is relatively new at Wits and he is not getting enough game time. He has been trying to get through to (Dynamos coach Calisto) Pasuwa but it seems the coach is busy with the national team.
"He is scheduled to meet with him today (yesterday). He is eager to play for DeMbare and if all goes well he might not return to South Africa."
Pasuwa could neither confirm nor deny the developments. The Dynamos gaffer is currently in camp with the Warriors ahead of the Chan finals set to start next month in South Africa.
"I haven't seen him but I heard he came looking for me at the Warriors camp," Pasuwa told the Daily News yesterday.
"But if it's true that he wants to come back, we are more than willing to accommodate him. You know Denver is one player you can always count on. We are in the Champions League and he is the type of player any coach would want in his team."
At Wits, the 21-year-old former DeMbare midfield magician has toiled under the burden of expectation, having arrived at Braampark with an outstanding reputation as Zimbabwe's footballer of the year for 2012.
Within four months of his arrival, the then Wits coach Clive Barker challenged Mukamba to up his game as the dribbling wizard, appointed his country's captain by former Warriors coach Klaus-Dieter Pagels, continued to be a "bit part player" at the club since his arrival in January during South Africa's mid-season transfer window.
"At the moment he (Mukamba) still has to answer the question of being able to play consistently," Barker told South African press in April.
"He has a terrific shot but he hasn't quite gelled into the team exactly the way we want him to play. I think it will be better for him to play in behind the striker because that is where I think he is better making those diagonal runs left and right. When he is up there doing it that is when we will see the right Denver.
"At the moment we are just trying to manipulate the situation," added Barker at the time.
Even with Barker departing at the end of the 2012-13 season, new coach Gavin Hunt has not made room for Mukamba in the starting line-up, and with Wits having gone into the Christmas break in an impressive third position in the Absa Premiership, the Warriors star will increasingly find it difficult to make a breakthrough.
Mukamba joined Wits on a two-year deal in January with an option for a further two-year extension on his contract.
He was part of the Dynamos team which won the Castle Premiership title in 2011 and 2012, but the lanky playmaker was never more inspired than in the 2012 season ' where apart from being the creative hub in DeMbare's midfield ' he also ended the season as the club's top-goal scorer with 11 goals.
While Dynamos went on to retain the league title in the post-Mukamba era this year, the Glamour Boys' squad was thin throughout the season and with critics suggesting the class of 2013 was the "worst" Dynamos squad in the three successive years they were crowned champions, the Harare giants are exploring the possibility of bringing Mukamba back home.
The record 20-time Zimbabwean champions have lodged a loan offer with the Johannesburg outfit and are hopeful of tempting Mukamba back with the incentive of regular football and African Champions League exposure next year.
Sources to Daily News say although there is willingness and commitment on the part of both clubs and the player himself, financial loose-ends of the deal could prove a sticking a point.
Wits are believed to have asked for a loan fee in the region of $20 000.
Having struggled to make an impact at Wits, Mukamba, who is currently back home in Harare for the festive holidays, is understood to have initially made overtures to re-join the club which catapulted him to prominence since moving there from Kiglon at the beginning of 2011.
Regular first team action will also help Mukamba's cause in the lead up to the 2015 African Nations Cup qualifiers next year.
Zimbabwe, now under the stewardship of former international Ian Gorowa, are hoping to return to Africa's premier football showcase after missing out on the last four editions of the tournament.
"He (Mukamba) wants a loan deal that can see him back at Dynamos," said the highly-placed source.
"The coach (Gavin Hunt) is relatively new at Wits and he is not getting enough game time. He has been trying to get through to (Dynamos coach Calisto) Pasuwa but it seems the coach is busy with the national team.
"He is scheduled to meet with him today (yesterday). He is eager to play for DeMbare and if all goes well he might not return to South Africa."
Pasuwa could neither confirm nor deny the developments. The Dynamos gaffer is currently in camp with the Warriors ahead of the Chan finals set to start next month in South Africa.
"I haven't seen him but I heard he came looking for me at the Warriors camp," Pasuwa told the Daily News yesterday.
"But if it's true that he wants to come back, we are more than willing to accommodate him. You know Denver is one player you can always count on. We are in the Champions League and he is the type of player any coach would want in his team."
At Wits, the 21-year-old former DeMbare midfield magician has toiled under the burden of expectation, having arrived at Braampark with an outstanding reputation as Zimbabwe's footballer of the year for 2012.
Within four months of his arrival, the then Wits coach Clive Barker challenged Mukamba to up his game as the dribbling wizard, appointed his country's captain by former Warriors coach Klaus-Dieter Pagels, continued to be a "bit part player" at the club since his arrival in January during South Africa's mid-season transfer window.
"At the moment he (Mukamba) still has to answer the question of being able to play consistently," Barker told South African press in April.
"He has a terrific shot but he hasn't quite gelled into the team exactly the way we want him to play. I think it will be better for him to play in behind the striker because that is where I think he is better making those diagonal runs left and right. When he is up there doing it that is when we will see the right Denver.
"At the moment we are just trying to manipulate the situation," added Barker at the time.
Even with Barker departing at the end of the 2012-13 season, new coach Gavin Hunt has not made room for Mukamba in the starting line-up, and with Wits having gone into the Christmas break in an impressive third position in the Absa Premiership, the Warriors star will increasingly find it difficult to make a breakthrough.
Mukamba joined Wits on a two-year deal in January with an option for a further two-year extension on his contract.
He was part of the Dynamos team which won the Castle Premiership title in 2011 and 2012, but the lanky playmaker was never more inspired than in the 2012 season ' where apart from being the creative hub in DeMbare's midfield ' he also ended the season as the club's top-goal scorer with 11 goals.
While Dynamos went on to retain the league title in the post-Mukamba era this year, the Glamour Boys' squad was thin throughout the season and with critics suggesting the class of 2013 was the "worst" Dynamos squad in the three successive years they were crowned champions, the Harare giants are exploring the possibility of bringing Mukamba back home.
Source - DailyNews
