FORMER Warriors defender Zvenyika Makonese is hoping that he will make it at Highlanders, where he has been training for the past two weeks.
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Turning 37 in July, Makonese says his legs can still carry him. He played for the Highlanders second string side that lost 1-2 to Black Boots on Sunday, curtain raising the friendly match between Bosso and FC Platinum. Makonese yesterday said he will continue to try his luck at the Bulawayo football giants. Although they have not had any negotiations going on, he is optimistic that something might come up for him to wind up his career in Bulawayo.
“I have been training with Highlanders for two weeks now.
“The reception has been good here. Highlanders have been good to me, but they have not held any talks with me yet. I am just hoping that something might come up.
“I will be training with them again this afternoon (yesterday) at White City Stadium,” Makonese said. He has previously played for South African giants Orlando Pirates, but has not been attached to any club after returning to his former club Shabanie Mine in 2011 and having a brief stint with the Mozambican side Deportivo.
Highlanders’ assistant coach Mark Mathe yesterday said Highlanders had no plans for the steely defender, but gave him a chance to play on Sunday, since he had been training with the club.
“He can still play and he is still fine. He has been training with us and we felt it would be good to give him a run on Sunday. He is one of the players that have been trying their luck, but we don’t have any plans for him,” Mathe said yesterday.
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Makonese trained with relegated Tripple B at the end of last year and indicated that his next port of call would be Triangle. He, however, said he was open to joining the country’s biggest clubs Dynamos and Highlanders.
Makonese started his career at Gaths Mine in 2001 before joining Shabanie Mine after being spotted by Moses Chunga, where he caught the attention of South African side Santos in 2004, a club that made his big career move to Orlando Pirates in 2009 possible.
At the end of 2006 he went for trials with England outfit Stoke City and had also attracted the attention of Wigan Athletic. He had an unsuccessful trial stint at French Ligue 1 side Stade Rennes. Makonese fell out of favour with the technical team at Pirates and came back to Zimbabwe where he rejoined Shabanie Mine and helped them survive relegation in 2011.
He then went to Mozambique.
