The Sunday Mail
George Chigova will today play his last match for Dynamos, away to Hwange, before leaving to start a new life at Supersport United in South Africa, amid a mixture of emotions running through the 23-year-old goalkeeper.
“It’s painful,” Chigova, who is expected to start pre-season training with Matsatsantsa on Wednesday, told The Sunday Mail last night.
“Dynamos has been my home for the past two years and it’s painful to be leaving, but I must say I am also happy at the same time . . . it’s a combination of pain and joy.
“Leaving is painful but the opportunity of facing up to a new challenge is exciting and I am looking forward to beginning life at Supersport.”
As he leaves Dynamos, with two league championship medals, a pair of Mbada Diamonds Cup winners’ medals and several individual awards, Chigova reckons his understudy Artwell Mukandi is capable of filling his shoes. In candid remarks the giant goalkeeper, who is also the current Zimbabwe number one gloveman, at least according to Warriors coach Ian “Dibango” Gorowa, disclosed that the signing of Mukandi forced him to up his game.
After a debut season that saw him being an automatic starter, as Phillip Nhete was the perfect bench warmer, in 2012 life took an interesting turn for Chigova when Dynamos swooped on Mukandi at the beginning of the 2012 campaign. With Mukandi joining the DeMbare ship after an amazing season with Monomotapa, coach Kallisto Pasuwa lit a fire under Chigova’s butt.
“When Artwell came through I had little option but to up my game . . . he is a good goalkeeper and having him at the club made me work harder.
“Competition is always healthy and we have been pushing each other over the past two seasons, we had our own kind of rivalry and it served the team well.
“As I leave, there is no doubt in my mind that Arty is the perfect man for the job, he has what it takes,” said Chigova who will also don the number 91 jersey at Supersport.
On the domestic front his wife Nokuthula Mangena, with whom he enjoys a relationship will give the journalists in Mzansi tonnes of Kodak moments through public displays of affection, is pregnant.
“I am excited . . . the thought of being a father is amazing,” said Chigova.
