… Korukuve and Ngwezi get their prizes
WINDHOEK – After a long wait strikers Guti Korukuve (African Stars) and Alfeus Ngwezi (United Stars) finally received their individual awards and prizes for their exploits in the inaugural edition of the annual Bidvest Namibia Knockout Cup earlier this year after complaining bitterly that they had been short-changed by the event organizers over the mysterious delay, in a local English daily.
After the newspaper exposed the administrative hiccup and laxity by the event organizers, the aggrieved pair were hastily summoned to Soccer House yesterday to receive their prizes at a relatively low-key awards ceremony.
Korukuve won the Player of the Tournament accolade while Ngwezi claimed the prestigious Golden Boot Award after rattling the opposition’s net on no fewer than six ocassions. The players received N$25 000 each, plus trophies which were presented by Bidvest Namibia’s Theo Mberirua and NFA Secretary-General Barry Rukoro.
Rukoro expressed his sincere gratitude to Bidvest Namibia for making the much needed resources available to allow local footballers to display their natural talent.
“Bidvest came on board and provided an additional quality competition for our footballers and that venture led to ensuring that the national football team benefitted immensely as was evidenced in our 1-all drawn match against African champions Nigeria this year. It was a well-deserved investment from Bidvest Namibia and our players certainly rose to the occasion to make it a football spectacle for all of us,” stated Rukoro.
Mberirua said the sponsors were very much delighted and impressed with the fashion in which the competition was conducted and look forward to the next edition. “We have no complaints as sponsors whatsoever even if it was the first time for us as sponsors to invest so much money in sport. We did all we could to make it a memorable success while the reports we received and read in the local newspapers were very impressive, pleasing and encouraging because we can only build on that,” said the man commonly known as Dlamini during his heyday at the Augustineum High School, as a result of his unmatched dribbling wizardry.
Katutura glamour football African Stars are the reigning champions after seeing off surprise finalists Mighty Gunners 2-0 to claim the N$500 000 winners first prize.