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Bruce Grobbelaar

Sikhumbuzo Moyo Senior Sports Reporter
FORMER Liverpool and Zimbabwe Dream Team goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar has added his voice to the growing calls for embattled Zifa president Cuthbert Dube to step down and allow a person with a new vision to take charge. Grobbelaar, nicknamed The Jungleman during his fairy tale romance with the Dream Team in the early 1990s, said while it could be his desire to return home and assist Zimbabwean football, that can only happen if a new captain takes over the sinking Zifa ship and steers it towards a sound financial footing.

Grobbelaar is now the goalkeepers’ coach at Ottawa Furry in Canada. Speaking on Supersport’s Soccer Africa programme on Thursday night, Grobbelaar said Dube’s leadership had been riddled with corruption claims and he also did not enjoy a good rapport with a number of players.

“The chairman isn’t what he was when he went in there. We also know that he has always struggled with corruption allegations,” said Grobbelaar. Asked why he was not returning to Zimbabwe to help out, especially with the national teams, Grobbelaar said that can only happen if there was a new man at the helm of Zifa.

“If there’s someone that can come there, take Zifa and hold it accountable and see to it that everything is up and running, and then they ask me to go there and help out with the national team, I’ll do that for sure, but that will not happen until the organisation has got a great man there and has got the money for the players, the coach and everything,” said Grobbelaar.

He however hailed Zimbabwean players whom he described as some of the most talented and intelligent in sub-Saharan Africa. The Jungleman said Zimbabwean players were in the same rank with African giants Nigerian, Cameroon and Cote d’Ivoire, countries that have qualified for the World Cup on numerous occasions.

“Zimbabwean players are probably the most intelligent in sub-Saharan Africa. If you go to the north, you’ve to compete with the Nigerians, the Cameroonians and the Ivorians, who are a very strong and organised unit, and that’s why they’ve gone to the World Cup more times than any of the southern African sides,” he said.