The Sunday Mail
FC PLATINUM bagged Talent Chawapiwa as a free agent at the start of the season, sold him for over US$84 000 six months later, and are set to get more cheddar each time the winger moves.
Not bad for a football club often accused of getting it horribly wrong on the transfer market.
Chawapihwa heads to South Africa’s Baroka FC having made Pure Platinum Play some neat money. The 25-year-old joined the Zvishavane-based miners on a free following the lapse of his contract with ZPC Kariba, and is believed to have pocketed a signing fee of just over US$10 000.
Chawapiwa didn’t really set the stage alight at FC Platinum during the first half of the season.
However, his show stopping performances at the recent Cosafa tourney caught the eye of Baroka’s scouts and the club moved with haste to lock down the player.
While the financial details of the deal have been kept under wraps, The Sunday Mail Sport heard last week that the South African side had paid “over R1 million for the boy”.
“The amount involved is just over R1 million and FC Platinum made sure that they inserted a sell-on clause that will see the club getting 32 percent of any amount the player is sold for,” said an informed source.
It has since emerged that several of South Africa’s big boys also made enquiries about Chawapiwa but the player was advised to settle for Baroka where he could have a fair crack at getting significant game time.
Zambian outfit Power Dynamos reportedly tried to turn the forward’s head at the last minute with a US$125 000 offer but theirs was always going to be a Herculean task so late in the bidding game.
FC Platinum chair Evans Mtombeni said for them it is never about the money “but what is good for both the player and the club”.
“We always put the interests of the player first and do not believe in standing in the way of a player who wants to move,” said Mtombeni. “As FC Platinum we have shown over the years through the transfers of Donald Ngoma, Thabani Kamusoko and Obrey Chirwa, among others, that we believe in giving players a chance to further their careers.
“We are happy for Talent and wish him well. His departure gives our other players a chance to shine and also get noticed by the foreign scouts.”
Pure Platinum Play have also been in the buyer’s market, adding Mkhokheli Dube through a swap deal that took Ishmael Wadi to Bulawayo City, and also adding Ali Sadiki to their roster.
The signing of 33-year-old Dube comes soon after the capture of another veteran in Takesure Chinyama, with Mtombeni insisting the pair could add value to the club following recommendations by coach Norman Mapeza and his technical team.
