The Sunday Mail
Langton Nyakwenda
MARC DUVILLARD is worried about Knowledge Musona’s career progress, or lack thereof, but the Swiss mentor is struggling to get hold of the player he helped into a diamond.
It appears as if the Warriors captain has frozen out the man who spent years grooming him at the famed Aces Youth Academy.
“I get worried sometimes when I read about Musona’s progress. I would love to talk to him, just to hear his side of the story but I cannot get through,” revealed Duvillard.
“I have sent texts but there’s no response, I have also tried calling to no avail. Don’t know what’s going on. Maybe he has become very rich.
“I do not have control over what he wants for his career now but as someone who worked with him when he was still a boy, I think it would have been nice to talk.”
The revelations come at a time when Musona’s career took a huge step backwards last week when Belgian giants Anderlecht loaned him to bottom of the log KSC Lokeren.
Musona made just eight appearances for Anderlecht in the first half of the season, five of them as a second half substitute.
The Warriors skipper is hoping to get more game time at Lokeren ahead of Zimbabwe’s crunch African Cup of Nations qualifier against Congo-Brazzaville in March.
And Duvillard is confident Musona can regain his mojo at Lokeren but continues to question the logic behind the Zimbabwean captain’s move from KV Oostende “where he was their top player” to Anderlecht “who already had two good strikers.”
Musona, who could not be reached for comment, moved to Anderlecht in May, 2018 after a decent stint at Oostende where he scored 35 goals in 104 appearances.
“I don’t know what has been happening with his moves but I think agents play a crucial role in this area. An agent should not broker a move just for the sake of money, there’s need to look at the future of the player.
“An agent has to research on the coach, talk to the coach and find out whether he really wants to play the player,” said Duvillard.
The highly respected mentor also spoke about why Zimbabwean players are not making it into the top European leagues.
“It’s simple, we do not have the right connections. Look at Khama (Billiat), he was ripe for a big European league two seasons ago but he is still in South Africa.
The other problem is we are not marketing our players. Our players are not known in Europe. Zimbabwe’s poor performance at the Africa Cup of Nations finals doesn’t help the situation, we bow out in the group stages.”
