Dynamos’ teenage stars spoilt for choice
Dynamos’ teenage sensations Luke Musikiri and Hamilton Gomba left the country on Sunday for a one-month trial stint with South Africa’s first division side Cape Town Spurs while Bill Antonio is weighing options from South Africa, Mozambique and Eastern European clubs.
Antonio’s next move, however, is not cast in stone after his agent turned down a flurry of offers in a bid to give the talented forward more time to sharpen the rough edges of his game.
Antonio’s agent says the 19-year-old has been a revelation for Dynamos, albeit while juggling professional football and school work adding now that he has completed his Advanced Level he can truly come out of his shell.
“The club and I took the decision not to allow Bill Antonio to go as we have other opportunities for him that we are exploring,” his football intermediary Plasidis Jefferson Ndaveni, widely known as PJ, told Zim Morning Post.
The club signed Antonio, a player PJ describes as being the mould and style of Argentine and Paris Saint-Germain star winger Ángel Fabián di María, in May 2021 following stand-out performances for Zimbabwe’s Under-20 football team at the COSAFA U20 Youth Championships.
Antonio’s cameo appearances in Zimbabwe’s topflight league for Dynamos subsequently earned him two two call ups to the Zimbabwe national football team. He also made the final 28-man list for the Warriors’ African Cup of Nations sojourn.
Turning to Musikiri and Gomba, the two players will be hoping to impress Urban Warriors’ technical team but whatever the outcome, the pair have an option for trials in Belgium later this year.
They had been billed to travel to the European country before Covid regulations torpedoed their schedule.
“The boys also have visas for Belgium but they were not able to go because of Covid. It’s winter now in Belgium so Dynamos and I decided to send them to an alternative opportunity,” PJ said of the two Prince Edward School students who last year sat for their Ordinary Level examinations.
“I would like to thank the Dynamos executive for allowing the boys to go. Special thanks go to the coach Tonderai Ndiraya who identified the boys and put in a lot of work together with his coaches in preparing the boys. It’s up to the boys to prove themselves as you can take a horse to the river but you can’t make it drink,” she added.
Dynamos signed right wing starlet Musikiri, last year, when he was 16-years-old following impressive performances at school competitions which included starring roles in the COPA Coca-Cola Cup Under-15 tournament – Zimbabwe’s annual premier schools’ soccer tournament.
Musikiri was part of the COSAFA 2020 Zimbabwe Under-17 national team and was nominated 2020 outstanding young player of the year by Zimbabwe’s ministry of sport.
Eighteen-year-old Gomba – son to former Dynamos midfield supremo Carrington Gomba – was signed by the Harare giants, in the same window after his combination of power and speed caught the eye of the Dynamos technical team.
