ENGLAND-BORN Zimbabwean winger Tinashe Chakwana served up another notice of his potential with a brilliant goal for the Under-18 team of English Premiership side Burnley as they staged a stunning comeback to edge Wigan in a seven-goal thriller on Thursday.
BY DANIEL NHAKANISO
The 18-year-old young star, who was born in Wigan, England to Zimbabwean parents, was the catalyst of Burnley’s stunning comeback as his team had trailed 2-0 early in the game before he pulled one back in the first half.
Olatunde Bayode then equalised before goals from Tommy Wood and Tyler Shrimpton put the Clarets 4-2 up, but it was Chakwana’s goal which set the platform for Burnley Under-18’s impressive win.
Chakwana’s performance on Thursday will certainly go a long way in improving his chances of breaking into the Clarets first team squad and join Tendai Darikwa, who has Zimbabwean roots but was born in England.
Darikwa is in line to earn selection for Zimbabwe at next year’s Africa Cup of Nations finals in Gabon.
However, it is the emergence of young Chakwana, who signed a professional contract with Burnley in July last year, which could catch the attention of Warriors’ coach Kalisto Pasuwa.
Chakwana has been in fantastic form for the English premier league development side, scoring regularly and recently received rave reviews from the head of Burnley’s development squad, Michael Jolly, who tipped him to break into the first team soon.
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“Tinashe’s quality is improving tremendously. He is scoring goals for the team and that’s important for a forward player,” Jolly said recently.
“Our aim is to get more players into the first team and we have more players training as part of the first team group from the Under-21 side.”
“And Tinashe is one of those players who have the potential to break into the first team soon,” said Jolly, the senior professional development phase coach at Turf Moor.
