King Nadolo did a Forlan on CAPS United

By Tadious Manyepo

New Dynamos recruit, forward King Nadolo, did a Diego Forlan on CAPS United when he signed for the Glamour Boys this year.

Doing a Diego Forlan is a football phrase used to describe a move in which a player, who had been set to join a certain club, changes his heart at the last minute and joins a rival side.

Forlan is a former Uruguay captain who agreed terms to join English side Middlesbrough only for him to end up signing for Manchester United.

The move was hijacked by a phone call from former Manchester United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson in the summer of 2002.

“In 2002, I was playing for Independiente and knew that Manchester United were interested in me; we had arranged a meeting,” wrote Forlan in his column for The National.

“Then Middlesbrough approached my agent, they wanted to see me before United.

“Sir Alex Ferguson found out about this. One day I got a phone call while I was in the bathroom. My roommate was sleeping on the bed so I was quiet.

“I could understand English from a very early age, but I could barely understand the man on the phone.’’

Eighteen years later, Nadolo and goalkeeper Taimon Mvula, travelled to Harare separately on CAPS United tickets before they both had a change of heart and joined the Glamour Boys.

The Herald has learnt that 2019 Soccer Star of the Year finalist Nadolo, the best player in the second half of last season, negotiated and agreed in principle to join the Green Machine.

He was still playing for relegated TelOne in November last year.

As per the agreement, the forward travelled to Harare from Gweru to tie the loose ends of the contract with CAPS United in January this year.

According to sources, Nadolo appeared happy as his contract was being prepared.

But, when he arrived to put pen to paper, he told the Makepekepe hierarchy he was no longer interested in signing the deal.

While the CAPS United authorities were still to find out what had gone wrong, Nadolo was being unveiled as a Dynamos player.

Goalkeeper Mvula also arrived from Hwange and met the CAPS United bosses but then decided to sign for DeMbare.

Makepekepe, who needed a third ‘keeper, were left with no choice but to take on board former Ngezi Platinum man Tatenda Munditi.

He has now joined Wallace Magalane and Tonderai Mateyaunga in the goalkeeping department at the club.

“Yes, both King Nadolo and Taimon Mvula were brought to Harare by CAPS United but both ended up signing for Dynamos,” said the sources.

“Nadolo was approached by CAPS United back in November 2019 and the two parties agreed in principle.

“So, bringing Nadolo to Harare was just a matter of formality as he had already agreed to join CAPS United.

“Surprisingly, he had a change of heart and penned a contract with Dynamos.

“That is the same issue with Mvula. But there are no hard feelings, it’s football after all.”

But Dynamos spokesperson Tinashe Farawo scoffed at the matter.

“We are a professional club and we run the club in a very professional manner,’’ he said. “The thing is the coach identifies which players he wants and advises the executive. The executive, in turn, helps track those players for the coach before tabling offers.

“That is the system we have used to sign all the new 13 players we have at the moment.

“It’s natural that some players are talented and other teams might have had interest in some of them but we are not aware of that.

“We just offered players a chance to play for us and the good thing is we have no issues with any clubs, or players, since we did our transfer business in a mature way.

“In Taimon Mvula’s case, I am the one who personally made errands with him, taking him for his medicals.

“In any case, given our brand, which player worth their salt wouldn’t want to play for Dynamos, especially given the stability we have created through marketing and partnerships with worthy brands?” The Herald