Credit: The Herald

Photo Credit: The Chronicle

FORMER Mighty Warriors coach and Harare City Queens coach Rosemary Mugadza says she was grooming the late Aldigrade Bhamu to become a women’s football coach after her retirement.

Bhamu was laid to rest at the Zororo Cemetery Park yesterday.

The former Mighty Warriors midfielder and Harare City Queens skipper passed on on Thursday evening after a short illness.

She was 34.

The football fraternity, family and friends thronged the cemetery to pay their last respects. Warriors manager Wellington Mpandare, ZIFA spokesperson Xolisani Gwesela, FUZ president Desmond Maringwa and his executive, Harare City coach Taurai Mangwiro and his players, Harare City Football Club executive, coaches Langton Giwa, Anne Konje and Mighty Warriors players, Black Rhinos Queens players and coaches; and Correctional Queens’ coaches were among the people that came in their numbers to pay their last respects to Bhamu.

Mugadza, who worked with Bhamu at the national team from a tender age until her death, said she was devastated by the latter’s untimely death.

“We have lost a talented footballer. A very dedicated cadre in terms of playing women’s football, someone who had football at heart. As Harare City we have lost a very gifted player, a player that could drive the team, and uplift the morale of the team when it is down. It is hard to believe that she is gone.

“She was a utility player who could fit in any position. She was full of life and was somebody who always loved to have fun with her teammates and other players from different clubs, as we have witnessed today.

“Most of the teams from Harare are here to pay their tribute which shows that she was a person who loved everyone, and she was a also person who did not hold grudges with anyone.

“It’s a sad loss to us as Harare City. It is going to be a tall order for us as a club to move on without her, especially this year she was the captain of both the senior team and Division One team because Rudo (Neshamba) and Danai (Bhobho) were away and we had roped her in to mentorship so that she could take in coaching as a career at Harare City at any given time (herself and Rudo) but it’s unfortunate that I couldn’t fulfil one of my objectives to make sure that I groom her and Rudo to takeover at Harare City at one point,” said Mugadza.

BN Academy director, Bheki Nyoni, said they were also grooming the defender-cum-midfielder who was coaching part-time at their academy.

“She was doing very well in terms of her technique and she was so active. She was so close to the parents, coaches and everyone and as an academy we were so happy with her work ethic.

“So whenever they didn’t have a match, she would come for training and last weekend she phoned that she didn’t have a match and she came on Saturday to work with the boys and everyone was so happy to see her back and everything went well only to hear about her passing on.

“We were in the process of grooming her to become one of the top women’s football coaches.

“From what we saw from the way she planned her things and carried out training sessions, she was so good,” said Nyoni.

Former Mufakose Queens and Correctional Queens midfielder Marjoury Nyaumwe said she had lost a long-time football mate.

“I started knowing her (Bhamu) in 2002 when I joined Mufakose Queens. The time I joined the club, is also the same time she joined together with Talent Mandaza and Lynette Mutokuto, we were the same age.

“Then in 2004, we went to the Under-20 team together and eventually the Mighty Warriors.

“I still vividly remember the day we left for the Olympics. She cried such that I felt pity but there was nothing I could do.

“We were together in the midfield department but she did not make it into the final team for Rio. She was a hardworking player,” said Nyaumwe.

Harare City Queens Amanda Five broke down as she narrated the relationship their skipper had with the players.

“I was surprised when l heard that she was at Parirenyatwa Hospital and had suffered a stroke. She was someone who was very fit but when coach Rose went to see her, she came back and told us to pray for Bhamu since her condition was not good.

“I was very close to Bhamu. We were then shocked to hear that she was no more. She cheated us she just went like that, we just wish if she had said goodbye to us as Harare City players.

“We are in pain everyone is heartbroken. She was a straight forward person and would just tell you if you did something bad, she was not the gossip type. Rest in peace my sister. Your void would be hard to fill. We will forever miss you,” said Five.

Robert Bhamu, Bhamu’s uncle, said Aldigrade put the Bhamu family in the spotlight.

“As a family, it is a great loss, we have lost a torchbearer. She raised the Bhamu family so high that it is going to take a while for someone to at least reach the level she reached. She was still young and it is painful to us as a family, as her parents.

“She played a part in the family, in the society in the sense that she encouraged other girls that it can be done. Coming from a background where the society has a negative attitude against the sport and being a female, she was able to overcome all that and managed to play for the Mighty Warriors and even went to the AFCON finals in Cameroon (2016),” he said.

Bhamu is survived by her mother and three siblings.