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Fungai Muderere
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TECHNICAL team fissures are reported to have been punctuating the FC Platinum camp amid revelations that the club’s goalkeepers coach Tembo Chuma abandoned his duties two weeks ago owing to a serious misunderstanding with head coach Norman Mapeza.

Chronicle Sport has it on good authority that Chuma, a former Masvingo United goalminder, who has worked as a goalkeepers trainer at Highlanders, ZPC Kariba and with the senior national team, was not on the FC Platinum bench in their last two consecutive 1-0 wins against Black Rhinos and Greenfuel.

FC Platinum

According to reliable club sources, during Chuma’s absence, the club’s three goalkeepers Petros Mhari, Wallace Magalane and Frances Tizayi got the greenlight to help each other from Mapeza.

“I have heard people saying that Tembo Chuma has been absent for two days. He has actually been absent for two weeks. He was not on the bench when we faced Black Rhinos and Greenfuel. Chuma and Mapeza have not been seeing eye to eye for some time.

“The coach (Mapeza) feels that the club’s three goalkeepers are mature enough, he agreed that they take themselves through their goalkeeping drills,” said the source.

Mhari, Magalane and Tizayi have been taking turns to guard the goal for the reigning champions. Mhari was in the starting place when they drew 2-2 against Manica Diamonds in their Matchday Eight encounter while Tizayi did duty when they lost 2-0 to Ngezi Platinum Stars at Baobab Stadium on Matchday Nine.

Magalane reclaimed his starting place when the miners met ZPC Kariba, Black Rhinos and Greenfuel. In all three outings, FC Platinum registered 1-0 wins.

While Pure Platinum’s media liaison officer Chido Chizondo insisted that Chuma was “in Zvishavane on duty”, another Platinum insider insisted that revered goalkeepers’ coach was not part of their workout yesterday.

The source said the tiff between Chuma and Mapeza reached a boiling point sometime last month when the latter demanded to know why the team’s goal-conceding rate was high.

In that regard, Chuma is said to have gone ballistic arguing that the two weeks pre-season period that he was granted to sharpen the clubs’ goalkeepers was not enough.

The four-time league champions have so far scored 13 goals, conceded 11 to put them at a goal difference of two. They are tied on 21 points with third placed Chicken Inn, two points behind Ngezi Platinum Stars.

Chuma has produced five goalkeepers of the year at three different clubs within a decade.
In 2012, Highlanders’ Ariel Sibanda was voted the PSL Goalkeeper of the Year and the following season, his teammate Munyaradzi Diya took the accolade.

Norman Mapeza

Chuma left Highlanders for ZPC Kariba and went on to produce another goalkeeping king in Tendai Hove who was named the 2014 PSL Goalkeeper of the Year.

He rejoined the Bulawayo giants in 2018, taking over from club legend Peter Nkomo and when the selection of the country’s best 11 players was done, Sibanda emerged as the best goalkeeper in the land.
Last year, Magalane took the honours under Chuma.
— @FungaiMuderere