By Collin Matiza
Triangle’s striker Delic Murimba has been given another chance to break into South African Premiership football after he was invited for a month-long trial period with newly-promoted side Stellenbosch.
The 20-year-old Zimbabwe youth international is expected to leave the country this coming weekend for the assessment set to run from June 17 to July 14 at the Western Cape-based team.
Murimba’s trials at Stellenbosch have been engineered by former Zimbabwe youth international midfielder Butler Masango, who is now running a football academy in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Masango was also behind Ronald Pfumbidzai’s move to another South African Premiership side Bloemfontein Celtic in August 2017.
And, according to the invitation letter for the trials, which was recently sent to Murimba by Stellenbosch’s general manager, Garth le Roux, through Masango, the club will be responsible for covering the player’s flights “to and from South Africa, ground-related transport, accommodation and meal arrangements during his stay in South Africa.”
Murimba, a key member of the Zimbabwe Under-23 team, will be staying at the club’s base at Stellenbosch Academy of Sport in Stellenbosch, stated le Roux in his invitation letter dated June 7, 2019.
This is the second time Murimba has been invited for trials by a South African Premiership team this year.
In January this year, he was invited for a 10-day assessment by South African champions Mamelodi Sundowns but according to Masango, he didn’t get much time to train with coach Pitso Mosimane’s first team because they were busy with the Caf Champions League campaign and catch-up games in the Absa Premiership.
“This hindered Murimba’s chances of getting a proper assessment from Mosimane and he ended up training with the Sundowns’ reserve team which he didn’t like but comments from the team’s reserve coaches were very encouraging,” Masango told our Harare Bureau from his base in Johannesburg yesterday.
Stellenbosch won promotion into the South African Premiership at the end of the 2018-19 season in May this year.
Popularly known as the Stellies, Stellenbosch were the form team among the 16 National First Division teams during the 2018/19 season where they spent over four months at the summit with an 11-point lead over the chasing pack at one stage. The Chronicle
