Benza PSL’s unsung hero

Herentals forward Tinotenda Benza might not be the finished product that Castle Soccer Star of the Year Rodwell Chinyengetere is, but the young forward probably deserved to walk onto the podium last Friday night when the Premiership’s finest players were honoured.

Benza had a fine debut season for the league’s newboys.

He might not have secured a place among the best 11 players of the year but for a 17-year old prospect, some neutrals and analysts would not be wrong to feel that he warranted recognition for the Rookie of the Year accolade.

In a maiden season they were largely expected to struggle especially against the background that Herentals decided to stick with the side that had won them promotion into elite league Tinotenda was one of the shining stars.

While attention might have been more fixed on his father and club, owner, Innocent Benza, Tinotenda showed the huge potential in him that even had former Young Warriors coach Moses Chunga including him in his Under-17 squad last year when he was playing in Division One.

Following their coach Kumbirai Mutiwekuziva’s declaration that he wouldn’t be tempted to tamper around with his Division One championship winning squad in favour of PSL experience, few gave Herentals a chance.

The soft-spoken Mutiwekuziva even had the guts to take aboard two extremes into his squad, registering 46-year-old Innocent Benza, who became the league’s oldest player, as well as his son Tinotenda, a fresh-faced former Peterhouse student who was among the top-flight’s youngest regular players at 17.

It came as a huge surprise if not a chock that the selectors overlooked the youth internationals exploits when they considered the best players of the season.

That Tinotenda is only 17 in a league whose second youngest player is two years older than him, means he can actually develop to become an extraordinary forward, barring injuries.

Scientifically, “a 17-year-old male footballer can only be at 75 percent of his potential’’ and that percentage was good enough for young Tinotenda to find the back of the net three times and providing seven assists despite being surrounded by fellow Premiership greenhorns.

That feat might not have merited a place among the finest 11 but deserved some recognition for the Most Promising Player’s award?

Harare City’s 19-year old striker Tatenda Tumba however, beat him to the gong and perhaps for Tinotenda the solace lies in the fact that another consistent season in 2019 could see him win the award as he still remains in the young players’ category.

Tumba now in his third season was winning the award for the second time.

But it is Tinotenda’s former coach Chunga who argued that the accolade of the Most Promising Player should not be awarded to a same player twice as he “should the following year grow beyond the promise shown’’.

Chunga suggested that there was some use of “feelings and showed fanaticism by the selectors in coming out with the winners.

“How on earth would the voters ignore some extraordinary work Tinotenda Benza has done?

“It’s a pity that we keep on discouraging deserving talent in terms of development,” said Chunga.

“Honestly we haven’t had a 17-year-old player in the top-flight for some donkey years now.

“I don’t mean to be rude but I think, the selection was flawed,’’ Chunga said. The Herald