The Sunday Mail
“TO imagine that I would become one of the best footballers in Zimbabwe was the kind of stuff better suited for the dreamland.
“Two years ago I was virtually unknown and to even think, then, that I would get a Warriors call up was farfetched,” he says.
It is not a dream anymore and Hillary “Obi” Bakacheza appears to have woken up; this after finishing amongst the 2015 Castle Lager Soccer Star of the Year finalist.
The 25-year-old lethal winger, who was the linchpin of Kevin Kaindu’s stunning Triangle who finished fourth last season, was rewarded with a call to the Warriors squad preparing for the African Nations Cup finals set for Rwanda in a fortnight.
Sadly though, he has been ruled out of the tourney with a hamstring injury.
Last Tuesday, he capped a fine 2015 by clinching a lucrative move to Norman Mapeza’s ambitious FC Platinum, this coming a few weeks after he received his maiden national team call up.
Although FC Platinum are yet to officially announce the deal, The Sunday Mail understands that Bakacheza joined the Zvishavane miners as a free agent in a transaction worth around $35 000.
Bakacheza, scorer of eight goals for Triangle last season, is regarded as one of the most lethal wingers on the domestic scene, thanks to his natural ability to take on defenders at full speed.
That is the reason why he managed to attract a lot of interest from former champions Dynamos, the rebuilding Caps United and How Mine where his former coach Kevin Kaindu is also linked with a move.
Triangle assistant coach Biggie Zuze, the man who introduced Bakacheza to Premiership football at the beginning of 2014, is not surprised the Kadoma born attacker has caused such frenzy.
“I am not amazed at all; Hillary (Bakacheza) always had potential.
“I worked with him when he was still a boy at Nyanga Pine Academy which was a nursery for my former side Monomotapa and you could see he had a rare talent.
“He was a very disciplined young man, he always wanted to achieve more and losing a player like him is a huge setback for Triangle,” said Zuze.
Triangle look like they are dismantling, just a few weeks after completing a fairytale season that saw them transform from relegation material into genuine title contenders.
Apart from coach Kaindu who has been linked with a move away from the Lowveld, the Sugar Sugar Boys have also lost highly rated defensive linkman Tichaona Chipunza to Dynamos, Cabby Kamhapa to Caps United and steely centre back Jimmy Tigere who has joined CAF Confederations Cup participants Harare City.
However, it is the rise of Bakacheza from an unheralded Division One player into one of the most deadly attackers in the Premiership which has captured the imagination of soccer fans in the Lowveld.
Only two years ago, the pint sized Bakacheza was at a crossroads following the demise of his former club Hippo Valley.
The promotion of Triangle, who are also owned by the same parent company Tongaat Hullet, into the Premier Soccer League at the beginning of 2013 and the subsequent elevation of sister club Hippo Valley the following year, placed the sugar producers in an awkward situation.
The sugar manufacturing concern could not have two teams in the PSL and the corporate opted to sustain Triangle at expense of Hippo Valley who were subsequently disbanded.
The downfall of Hippo Valley gave birth to Chiredzi FC who however did not last the 2014 Castle Lager Premier Soccer League distance.
“All the Hippo Valley players were automatically transferred to Triangle, that is how I ended up at the Sugar Sugar Boys.
“The then coach Zuze had faith in me because he knew me from long back and probably that is one of the main reasons I blossomed at Triangle,” said Bakacheza.
Hillary is the son of Rio Tinto legend Raphael Bakacheza, a renowned player during his heyday in the mining town of Kadoma.
“Apart from being a very good footballer, my father has always been a mine worker and as a family there was no place we really called our home. We moved to wherever dad’s job took him,” said Bakacheza.
He was born in Kadoma and spent his childhood days in Chakari before his family moved to Alaska Mine in Chinhoyi.
Bakacheza also tasted life at Muriel Mine before he concluded his secondary school education at Chrome in Shurugwi.
His football career would soon take a fruitful turn, thanks to the discerning eye of former Young Warriors and Monomotapa coach Rodwell Dhlakama.
“Very few know that it was Dhlakama who discovered my talent which was hidden somewhere in Shurugwi in 2008. I was training with then Division One side Zimasco when Dhlakama passed through.
“He was charmed by my skills and he immediately took me to Nyanga Pine Academy.
“Taku Shariwa was the assistant coach at the Academy, so when he (Shariwa) found employment at Hippo Valley in 2012, he took me along,” revealed Bakacheza.
At FC Platinum he will link up with long time friend Brian Muzondiwa and flying winger Marshal Mudehwe who was his teammate at Nyanga Pine Academy.
