By Tafadzwa Chigandiwa
Veteran Caps United and Warriors defender, Method “Yellow” Mwanjali has announced his retirement from active football, a local publication has confirmed.
After a lengthy football career that lasted almost 20-years, the Hwange born centre back has retired as a player and is reportedly set to venture into a new football journey as a coach.
Mwanjali’s hope to play for at least one more season went gloomy following the outbreak of Covid-19 that saw the government freezing all football activities in the country, as a way to mitigate the spread of the deadly virus.
Speaking to a local media, the versatile player bemoaned Covid-19, indicating that his desire was to quit the beautiful sport with an honour to wave goodbye to the football fans who supported him throughout his career.
” I wanted at least one more season but Covid-19 has made sure that won’t happen. My hope was to bid farewell to all the football fans, the owners of the game that drive players to make us who we are as soccer players,” he said.
“I wanted to make a decent farewell in a decent manner, however due to the Covid-19 everything has been disturbed,” the veteran defender told the publication.”
Method has played professional football for the past 19 years.
Throughout his career, the 38-year old central defender turned out for Hwange FC juniors, Shabine Mine, Caps United, Mamelodi Sundowns, Simba SC and Mpumalanga Black Aces.
According to media reports, Mwanjali has been offered a new role at the Green Machine club.
Reports indicate that he will become one of the assistant coaches to the current Caps United gaffer, Darlington Dodo.
The former Warriors captain was handed his first national team cap at the age of 22. His experience and composure helped Zimbabwe to lift the 2009 COSAFA CUP.
However, in 2012 “Yellow” was haunted by match fixing allegations, implicating him to be part of the Asiagate Scandal that resulted in a life ban of other players and executives. Nonetheless the player cleared his name and returned back to play football.
Mwanjali becomes the second player to retire from professional football recently after former Chicken Inn veteran midfielder Clemence Matawu, who also quit active football in January 2021 and is now the club’s Administrator.
