The Sunday Mail
Langton Nyakwenda
WARRIORS captain Knowledge Musona has not taken European football by storm and continues to change clubs at an astonishing rate of one per season.
It is difficult to juxtapose the Musona of today with the one that had club’s scrambling for him just seven years ago.
Former Hoffenheim Sports Director Ernest Tanner described him as one of the brightest talents in Africa when the German side snapped him in July 2011.
“We are glad to have signed one of the brightest talents in Africa,” Tanner, a respected youth talent expert who has also worked with Austrian giants Red Bull Salzburg told Kaizer Chiefs.com back then.
Holger Stanislawski, who was coach at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim when Musona made his first move to Europe, also saw a lot of potential in the lad.
“(Musona) has shown that he can score for club and country and we want to build up on this potential,” Stanislawski told BBC Sport back in 2011. However, seven years down the line, Musona still looks unsettled in the European shores as he has changed teams seven times including a bewildering return to Kaizer Chiefs in 2013.
Two weeks ago, and barely a year after joining Anderlecht, the 28-year-old Zimbabwe skipper found himself on the move again, this time joining struggling Belgium First Division side Sporting Lokeren on a loan deal.
Along the road, Musona and his agent Mike Makaab have made some questionable moves which have not only affected the player’s career progress but his market value also.
Musona’s market value was around US$1,7 million when he moved from South Africa to Hoffenheim in July 2011.
His stock stagnated for two years before falling to US$1,1 million in July 2013 when he made a shock move back to Kaizer Chiefs.
His value rose back to US$1,7 million when he joined to KV Oostende in 2015 before peaking to USD2.8 million in 2017. Musona is now valued at around US$2,27 million by respected player value estimators Transfermarkt.com.
His decision to move back to Kaizer Chiefs from Germany in 2013, at a time there was reported interest from English Championship side QPR will always be questioned.
According to international reports, QPR who had just been relegated from the English Premier League, offered Musona a 10-day trial stint but the Zimbabwean chose to return to Kaizer Chiefs.
A season later, QPR won promotion back into the EPL.
A chance to play for Scottish giants came in 2011 after Musona had won the South African Premiership’s Golden Boot with 15 goals in 28 matches, but the Zimbabwean star ended up at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim.
Scotland’s second largest newspaper website The Scotsman confirmed Celtic’s interest in Musona on July 1, 2011.
“Celtic have been told they cannot gazump Hoffenheim’s attempts to sign Kaizer Chiefs striker Knowledge Musona.
“Celtic have expressed interest in the 21-year-old Zimbabwe forward but he is due to travel to Germany for trial after he receives a visa…,” wrote The Scotsman.
But why has Musona not developed as fast as everyone expected him to?
“Knowledge has been unfortunate on the transfer market, sometimes players have bad luck.
“Remember Musona was affected by the changes in the technical department at Hoffenheim, the coach who wanted him was sacked just over six months after he joined the club,” opined Nigel Munyati, director at Aces Academy, a Harare based football school which honed Musona’s skill.
“But I think his decision to come back to South Africa in 2013 was wrong, he should have stayed in Europe and fight there. He took a huge step backwards.
“Also, I think English football would have treated him better than the German league. German football requires big strikers, target men, but Musona’s diminutive stature meant he could not fit into the German style and ended up being played as a second striker or wide,” added Munyati.
There are some who feel Musona should have stayed at KV Oostende where he had a chance of becoming a club legend, but the Zimbabwean opted for a step higher by moving to Belgian giants Anderlecht.
Musona scored 35 goals in 104 appearances for KV Oostende between 2014 and 2018 before joining Anderlecht in May 2018.
His agent, Mike Makaab did not respond to The Sunday Mail, despite promising to do so during the week.
However, Musona still believes he can rise again.
“People cannot judge me during my stay in Anderlecht because I have never been able to show myself,” the striker recently told Belgian newspaper het Laatste Nieuws.
“I hope this loan move (to Lokeren) will allow them to come to the conclusion that I can bring something to the team.”
