Orlando Pirates striker Terrence Dzvukamanja will remain at the club and is in talks over a fresh new contract with the club.
The 29-year-old looked set to leave Pirates at the start of the 2022/23 season with SuperSport United head coach Gavin Hunt keen to reunite with the forward he worked with during their time at the now-defunct Bidvest Wits.
While the player told iDiski Times on the eve of the start of the campaign he wants to stay and fight for his dream of achieving success at one of the biggest clubs in the DStv Premiership and he still harbors dreams of earning a move abroad, at appeared hopes were fading away as he was left out of the matchday squad for 14 consecutive games.
But since earning his place into the starting eleven at the end of January on match day 18, he became an integral part of Jose Riveiro’s first-team plans and his agent Mike Makaab has confirmed they activated his one-year option already.
“He has one more season left at Pirates via an option and at the moment we’re speaking to the club and with Terrence of a possibility to a longer-term contract,” Makaab confirmed to iDiski Times.
“So we are in discussions as we talk, Terrence will remain at Orlando Pirates for the new season. It was a very tough spell for Terrence [in the beginning] but his professionalism and commitment to the club when he got a chance, was nothing short of remarkable.”
The Zimbabwe international stated to this publication before the Nedbank Cup final that he’s yearning for the chance to play CAF Champions League football and would love to remain at Pirates beyond the current season.
It represented a remarkable turnaround in fortunes for a player who was subjected to jeers from the club’s supporters as he struggled to become a regular and was rather goal-shy for his attacking role over the first two seasons, which yielded five goals.
“He showed incredible professionalism and determination, I have no doubt in my mind the supporters at Orlando Pirates have seen what his capabilities are and I hope those who made his life difficult, feel pretty awful now,” Makaab added.
“As a former Pirates coach, and it’s not only at Pirates, it’s at our big clubs in the country, when players go through a slump, instead of them embracing the player and lifting him, they tend to get on that players back and I find that totally unacceptable, the club does too but that’s in the past.”
Dzvukamanja capped off the season with eight goals and two assists in 13 starts as they won the MTN8 and Nedbank Cup title, in which he netted a dramatic last-minute winner on the final day of the 2022/23 domestic campaign.
Story by Lorenz Kohler (@Lorenz_KO).
