Skhumbuzo Moyo in BULAWAYO
ZIMBABWE football legend Bruce “Jungleman” Grobbelaar says he will consider coming back to play a role in the Warriors should the current football leadership leave the scene. The former Liverpool ’keeper, who was one of the stars of the Dream Team, said he believes Zimbabwe has the best football talent in Southern Africa, and the country can — with the right leadership — compete with the best countries in Africa.
He was speaking on SuperSport’s weekly football magazine programme, Soccer Africa, where the anchor of the show, Sizwe Mabhena, described the game in this country as being “in tatters.”
Grobbelaar said his love for Zimbabwe remained unquestionable and he would get on the plane and return to serve his country should there be a new leadership in the game. He is currently the goalkeepers’ coach at Ottawa Furry in Canada.
“The chairman (ZIFA president Cuthbert Dube) isn’t what he was when he went in there. We also know that he has always struggled with corruption allegations,” said Grobbelaar. “If there’s someone that can come there, take ZIFA and hold it accountable and see to it that everything is up and running, and then they ask me to go there and help out with the national team, I’ll do that for sure. “But that will not happen until the organisation has got a great man there and has got the money for the players, the coach and everything.”
He, however, hailed Zimbabwean players whom he described as some of the most talented and intelligent in sub-Saharan Africa.
The Jungleman said Zimbabwean players were in the same rank with African giants Nigerian, Cameroon and Cote d’Ivoire, countries that have qualified for the World Cup on numerous occasions.
“Zimbabwean players are probably the most intelligent in sub-Saharan Africa. If you go to the north, you’ve to compete with the Nigerians, the Cameroonians and the Ivorians, who are a very strong and organised unit, and that’s why they’ve gone to the World Cup more times than any of the southern African sides,” he said.