IT is enthralling that Zimbabwe is back again in the football family and this is one of the most spirit uplifting developments for a country that is currently wallowing in economic doldrums with workers hardly affording to feed their families.
Nonetheless, now that Zimbabwe has been given a second chance to dance with the best on the world football stage, having been drawn in the 2026 World Cup Africa qualifiers, the country should definitely move in earnest to justify its readmission to the football family.
Zimbabwe has just about four months to come up with a credible national team, strong enough to fight for a place in the world’s biggest sporting event.
The starting point is the appointment of a coach, who should from the word go be well remunerated to encourage him to resolutely take up the daunting task ahead.
As Zimbabwe returns to the world’s most beautiful game, it needs a coach with a real passion for success and there are quite a number locally, and the country should not rush to hunt from across the oceans when we have ample talent locally.
It should not take us a month from now to find a coach because it will leave him inadequate time to assemble a formidable team to fight for a slot in the 2026 World Cup.
And soon after a trainer has been transparently identified, a team needs to be quickly assembled and it should immediately start training to begin the gelling process.
Our last year’s soccer stars are a good starting point because they achieved that feat under the most trying times, although they will need more exposure to withstand the pressure of international football.
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So in the meantime, Zimbabwean foreign-based players should start making serious plans to answer the call to duty because they are the only ones we can bank on at the moment if we are to entertain any chances of making it past giants like the Super Eagles of Nigeria and the pesky Bafana Bafana from across the Limpopo River who we have been pitted against in the qualifiers.
Our hope lies in the foreign-based players because they have been playing the game at international level while locally-based players have been struggling in the shadows having been denied the opportunity to sharpen their skills by the international soccer governing body, Fifa, following government interference in the country’s football matters.
In the next four months, the Warriors’ schedule should be madly tight to include as many friendly matches as possible with other countries to help oil the machine.
We are sincerely saying all this simply because we want Zimbabwe to avoid the embarrassment of being knocked out of this prestigious competition which comes once in four years, which is literally once in a blue moon, so to speak. Since independence in 1980 the country has never been to the tournament, but that should not rule us out.
By properly planning and adequately resourcing this campaign, we believe we have the chance to cause an upset and make a surprise appearance at the World Cup scheduled to the co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Being a proud soccer-loving nation we will strongly rally behind the new Warriors team which should be assembled as soon as yesterday and hit the ground running.
