JOHANNESBURG Former Zimbabwe national team goalkeeper, Pernell Mckop, has over the years risen to become a specialist goalkeeper coach in neighbouring South Africa, where he migrated six years ago. (Pictured: Former Zimbabwean goalkeeper, Pernell Mckop)
Mckop, formerly an agile goalkeeper who also turned out for Bulawayos Zimbabwe Saints and Highlanders and was part of Reinhard Fabischs much-famed Dream Team of the 1990s, moved south of the Limpopo in 2004 and has been involved with a number of clubs there. He is currently the goalkeepers coach for Durban-based ABSA Premiership side, Maritzburg United.
This is my second time with them, having first joined the club during the 2007/2008 season, Mckop told The Zimbabwean. When I joined the club with Ian Palmer as Head Coach and Ashwin Sutton as his other assistant, they had just been relegated from the Premiere League and we had to rebuild the team.
The team, that had two Zimbabwean goalkeepers Dominic Sithole and David Mkandawire, finished as Champions in the Coastal Stream First Division and went on to beat FC AK in the play-off final to gain promotion to the Premiere League. However, when the club decided to bring in Gordon Igesund as head coach, Mckop and his colleagues were forced to job-search again, finding a new base at Bay United, then in the PSL.
Mckop helped to save the club from relegation, having taken them from last position in the log to 12th place. My Goalkeeper Shuaib Walters was selected for the Bafana Bafana World Cup Team as third choice, he said. Since his arrival in South Africa, Mckop has worked with Cape Town-based PSL side Santos in and in the 2005/2006 was with Free State Stars.
In the 2006/07 season, he was with FC AK in Johannesburg, who were then campaigning in the National First Division. I also worked for the Old Mutual Academy and the Western Cape Sports School from June to October 2009.
Post published in: Zimbabwe Sports News