Ngezi renew Epoupa interest

By Mukudzei Chingwere

Premiership side Ngezi Platinum Stars have renewed interest in unsettled Dynamos striker — Christian Joel Epoupa Ntouba — as well as versatile Shabanie Mine defensive linkman, Joe Nyabinde.

The Mhondoro miners are now anxiously waiting for the Cameroonian forward to terminate his contract with the struggling Harare giants before they can pounce.

After conceding their first goal of the season away to Shabanie Mine and dropping points for the first time, coach Tonderai Ndiraya and his staff seek to add Nyabinde who is comfortable playing as a centreback, wingback as well as defensive midfield role.

The miners are light in defence following the departure of Partson Jaure to Zambia and the absence of Qadr Amini who is a long-term injury casualty.

Ndiraya has even resorted to desperate measures, deploying former CAPS United striker Kelvin Bulaji as a wingback. Last week Ngezi Platinum Stars secretary, Cleote Munjoma, said they were not interested in Epoupa and even went on to say they had exhausted their squad list.

“We are very much interested in Epoupa, but we are waiting for him to get a clearance from Dynamos for us to be able sign him.

“We actually wanted to sign him at the end of last season, but he decided against joining us, he wanted to move to South Africa, but now we feel we can have him after the South African deal collapsed.

“FUZ (Footballers Union of Zimbabwe) are now working on his release from Dynamos and they have promised us that they are making some progress.

“That we have registered 25 players is not true, we actually registered 23 senior players, Partson (Jaure) was not replaced and we have also de-registered Qadr because of his long-term injury.

“We are also in a desperate situation to add another defender to our squad, we have now targeted Nyabinde who has been doing very well at Shabanie,” said a source.

Nyabinde is on loan at Shabanie Mine from Chicken Inn and the Gamecocks are said to be interested in doing business with Ngezi as they want to use the player to sweeten the deal of recruiting one of the three goalkeepers in Mhondoro.

Ngezi Platinum have three top goalkeepers — Nelson Chadya, Bernard Donovan and Tatenda Munditi.

Joey Antipas, the Gamecocks coach, will soon lose goalkeeper Elvis Chipezeze to Baroka of South Africa. The Herald