Bullets dominate awards’ nominees
Nyasa Big Bullets dominate nomitated players for the 2022 TNM Super League awards scheduled for this evening in Blantyre.
The flagship league sponsors, TNM plc, will decorate outstanding players and journalists at Amarylis Hotel.
Such is the People’s Team’s dominance that out of four players nominated for the Player of the Season Award, they have contributed three.
The three are left-back Gomezgani Chirwa, blossoming midfielder Patrick Mwaungulu and the league’s Golden Boot winner Babatunde Adepoju, who has since joined South African second-tier league side Venda Academy.
The other nominee for the prestigious award, which carries a K2 million prize, is Paul Master of Blue Eagles.
That is not all. The champions are also represented in all the seven categories.
Adepoju already bagged the Golden Boot Award with 18 goals and will cart home K1 million.
Mighty Mukuru Wanderers’ Pilirani Mapira, Brightone Munthali of Eagles, who conceded the least number of goals, and Bullets’ Richard Chimbamba have been nominated for Best Goalkeeper Award.
Nomads’ Miracle Gabeya and Stanley Sanudi, Paul Ndlovu of Mafco FC and Chirwa of Bullets are the shortlists for the Best Defender Award.
Last season’s Player of the Season Chimwemwe Idana whose contract with Bullets expired recently, Mwaungulu and Ekwendeni Hammers’ Chawanangwa Gumbo, who has since joined Bullets, have been short-listed for the best midfielder accolade.
Mwaungulu, who appears on three categories, has also been nominated for Rookie of the Season alongside McDonald Lameck of Eagles and Ekwendenis’s Gift Chunga.
The awards go with a K500 000 prize for each category.
Bullets head coach Kallisto Pasuwa, who led the team to a fourth successive title, is up for the Coach of the Season Award alongside runners-up Eagles’ gaffer Elia Kananji and third-placed Kamuzu Barracks mentor Charles Kamanga.
In an interview yesterday, the People’s Team chief administration officer Albert Chigoga said the dominance in nominees is testimony of the club’s individual brilliance.
He said: “It is good news. It shows how the performance of the team members has impacted on the team’s overall performance.”
In the media category, eight awards are up for grabs in print, radio, television, radio commentary, online, photography, for both still and video, and analysis. The media awards are adjudged by an independent panel comprising media scholars and experienced practitioners.
Speaking ahead of the awards, TNM plc acting chief executive officer LLoyd Gowera said the awards gala gives them an opportunity to reward and recognise individual brilliance in key categories of players, clubs and media.
He said: “The end of every TNM Super League season is a time to look back at the who’s who of the local football industry for players and media practitioners and on Wednesday [today], TNM will pay special tribute to the heroes of the just-ended season by decorating and bestowing upon them the medals of recognition they deserve.”
Gowera said the 2022 season was one of the most exciting in recent years as it marked the return to normal football action after the Covid-19 lockdowns, “and this is reflected in the tight competition for the awards slots in all the key categories”.
