AfricaPress-Tanzania: BERNARD Morrison, who has quickly established himself as a fan favourite after joining the Jangwani Street club for a reportedly six month deal, is reportedly to have signed a two- year extension deal.
The club’s through its official instagram page confirmed yesterday on the extension of the deal and the former Orlando Pirates striker was seen holding signed documents along with representative from club sponsors GSM, Hersi Said.
This latest development came shortly after Morrison refuted claims that he is on the verge to join traditional rivals Simba SC at the end of the season, insisting that he is committed at his current club.
Morrison has been a household name ever since he landed at Yanga during the mini transfer window courtesy of his playing skills and the way he celebrate after scoring goals, thereby winning hearts of many Yanga supporters across the country.
His fame doubled when he scored the only goal in their 1-0 win over Simba in a traditional derby encounter at the National Stadium in Dar es Salaam via a sublime free-kick, which was enough to silence the league leaders and defending champions.
Speaking in the city, Morrison said he has no plans to join any other club in the country, saying he has a contract with Yanga, which need to be respected.
“I have heard such rumours but now, I’m loyal to my club since I signed a contract with them that should be respected between us. I have no plans to join Simba or any other club here,” the Ghanaian player said.
About his show off skills he usually do when the game unfolds, Morrison said he learnt them when he was playing at Orlando Pirates in South Africa and he understand that many Yanga fans are happy to see him displaying the skills in matches.
“I have many skills to show but that becomes reasonable after we have scored many goals. I normally do them to entertain our fans, who come at the stadium to give us support. It is just for entertainment purposes,” he said.
Again, Morrison revealed that he has played in DRC and South Africa but has never experienced the extraordinary love from supporters like the way Tanzanians do to him.
“I remember my first game here was in Singida and after the match, many fans descended on me. At first, I thought they were going to take pictures with me but surprisingly, they started giving me money like 10,000/-, 5,000/- and even 1000/-.
“When I counted it after arriving home, it amounted to almost 500,000/-something which has never happened in my professional career,” Morrison happily said, while also disclosing that when they went to play against Namungo FC, he was given four chickens by fans.
Meanwhile, Yanga announced that the 200m/-they pledged to give players following their triumph over Simba has been fulfilled and distributed according to the way its sponsor GSM recommended.
On Thursday, the team’s Mobilisation Officer, Antonio Nugaz admitted that the whole amount was released and given to the players as well as the technical bench staff.
Asked why it took so long before releasing the money, Nugaz replied that it was a huge amount of money which had to go through various stages prior to reaching the beneficiaries.
However, pundits are questioning as to why Yanga used much energy to emerge winners against Simba and thereafter went down 1-0 to KMC before posting a 1-1 draw against Namungo FC with others predicting that the delays to release the amount led to the team’s poor performance in their past two matches.
As the Mainland Premier League remain paused to prevent further spread of coronavirus, Yanga sit third on the table with 51 points from 27 games, three points behind second placed Azam FC who have 54 points after 28 matches, while Simba sit comfortably at the summit with 71 points from 28 outings.
