BY DANIEL NHAKANISO
BELGIAN giants RSC Anderlecht’s new head coach Frank Vercauteren has given Warriors hitman Knowledge Musona a big chance to salvage his future with the club after welcoming him back into the first team.
Musona’s career at Anderlecht looked over after being deemed surplus to requirements by the club’s then player/coach Vincent Kompany before the season had even begun back in May.
The 29-year-old striker’s woes were further worsened after undergoing hernia surgery that kept him out of action for the past few months.
However after making his comeback from injury by featuring for Anderlecht’s Under-21 side last month, the Zimbabwe international received another lifeline during the recent FIFA break after being invited to train with the first team by the new boss Vercauteren.
The 62-year-old Vercauteren recently took over the head coaching duties from the former Manchester City defender Kompany in a bid to revive the ailing fortunes of the country’s most successful team.
Despite holding the record as Belgium’s most successful club, Anderlecht have experienced their worst ever start to a top flight season as they are in 13th place in the 16-team league having won only two of 10 league games under Kompany.
With Kompany stepping back to being just a player after it emerged that he was not a holder of a UEFA Pro licence, which is mandatory for every head coach in the Belgian top-flight league, Musona appears to have been given a new lease of life.
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Vercauteren seems to have taken a particular liking to Musona along with other players who had been previously overlooked by his predecessor.
Musona together with Ukrainian defender Yevheni Makarenko, French midfielder Adrien Trebel and Romanian utility player Alexandru Chipciu have for the first time this season been training regularly with the first team and the Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad revealed on Thursday that they could be set to feature for the club this season.
In fact Chipciu is tipped to feature in Anderlecht’s clash against Sint-Truidense V.V. today.
“Two weeks ago, RSC Anderlecht appointed a new head coach with Frank Vercauteren. Under Vercauteren, by the way, there are a lot of players hoping for a new chance. Knowledge Musona, Yevheni Makarenko, Alexandru Chipciu, Adrien Trebel have all been making an impression during training,” Het Nieuwsblad said.
“The Romanian Chipciu appears closest to getting some minutes and it is certainly possible that he is already in the selection for the home game against STVV on Sunday.”
Musona had a successful three year stay at KV Oostende, scoring 35 goals in 103 appearances, which convinced fellow Belgian side Anderlecht to sign him in June 2017.
The Aces Youth Academy product has, however, endured an unhappy stint with the struggling 34-time Belgian champions.
Musona has insisted that he has not been given enough opportunities after making just eight appearances for the club and scoring one goal since his move.
After spending the reminder of last season on loan at Sporting Lokeren, the Warriors forward is determined to prove his critics wrong by reclaiming his place back in the first team.
His recovery will also come as sweet music in the ears of Zimbabwe interim coach Joey Antipas ahead of the opening matches of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying matches against Botswana and Zambia next month.
The forward had been out of action since his last appearance for the Warriors during the disastrous 2019 AFCON finals held in Egypt and missed the two Zimbabwe’s World Cup qualifiers last month against Somalia because of injury.
There has been speculation that Musona did not feature for the Warriors against Somalia because of a ban imposed on him by ZIFA but the striker was not considered for selection as he was still recovering from hernia surgery.
