It could have taken more than a month to come but Zimbabwe international striker Takesure Chinyama was pleased with his performance when he finally made his debut for South African Premiership giants Orlando Pirates.
Chinyama, who was signed from Dynamos in July, could now be viewing the injury to veteran forward Benni Macarthy as a blessing in disguise for him. A former top-notch forward, Macarthy injured his hamstring during South Africa’s international friendly against Brazil and has been ruled out for six weeks.
Newly appointed Buccaneers coach Roger De Sa, on Saturday gave Chinyama the nod to start in the match against Platinum Stars. It was De Sa’s first assignment of which he got off to a 1-0 winning start after giving Chinyama an hour to run.
Chinyama clearly lacked match fitness and was pulled out in the second half but he was happy to have been given the chance. “I think it took a lot from the coach to play me in that match. “There’s a lot of competition in the team particularly in the striking department,” Chinyama told his club’s website.
The former Poland-based forward was also pulled out in the Warriors 3-1 win over Angola at Rufaro after struggling with his game. “However, I have been training well and playing a couple of friendly matches and everything is going well for me but friendly matches and league matches are totally different.
“I needed to play in that game so that I can get my confidence back. I haven’t played competitive football in a long time so obviously my match fitness for the competitive games is not where I want it but it’s getting there.
“Overall, I am happy that I finally played my first match for Pirates and am looking forward to playing more games and help the team,” he added.
While Chinyama is satisfied with the way he has started life at the Buccaneers, his management team is still haggling with the Dynamos executive who have been allegedly holding onto their 10 percent agency fees.
Chinyama’s manager Kennedy Mapeza yesterday accused DeMbare of acting in bad faith in the manner they had handled the financial transaction of the big striker’s transfer. The Herald
