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NewsDay

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Chiwome extends stay at Wolves

Sport
WARRIORS prospect Leon Chiwome has signed a new contract with Wolverhampton Wanderers which will keep him at the English Premier League club until 2028.

WARRIORS prospect Leon Chiwome has signed a new contract with Wolverhampton Wanderers which will keep him at the English Premier League club until 2028.

Reports from England yesterday indicated that the 18-year-old, who is teammate to Warriors star Tawanda Chirewa at Wolves, signed a deal that includes an option for a further year.

Chiwome, who made his Premier League debut towards the end of last season, joined Wolves’ academy from AFC Wimbledon two years ago.

He is expected to remain at Wolves next season to compete for a place in the first team, allowing fellow academy striker Nathan Fraser to leave on loan for much-needed game time.

Chiwome made three Premier League appearances at the end of last season, including two starts.

He scored three goals in nine appearances for Wolves under-21s in Premier League Two.

The highly-rated striker’s stay and development in the EPL, widely regarded as the most competitive  league in the world, is great news for Zimbabwe, although he is yet to commit his allegiance to the Warriors.

The striker received a Warriors call up for the 2026 World Cup Qualifiers against Rwanda and Nigeria in November last year, but could not make the trip.

He was born in the United Kingdom to an English mother and a Zimbabwean father.

The teenager has represented England in the U17, U18 and U21 junior levels. The Warriors supporters are hopeful that he can follow in the footsteps of Chirewa to embrace his Zimbabwe heritage and turn out for the team at the senior level.

He was not called for Zimbabwe’s recent World Cup qualifiers against Lesotho and South Africa, but he is expected to make the squad for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifiers in September.

Zimbabwe will, in a fortnight’s time, know their opponents in the qualification route for the Afcon finals to be staged in Morocco next year.

The Warriors will be returning to the qualifiers after missing the previous qualification process due to a Fifa ban.

Zimbabwe, who last featured at the 2021 Afcon finals, is part of the 48 nations that will go into the draw pot on July 4 to fight for a place in next year’s finals.

Preliminary stage winners Chad, Eswatini, Liberia and South Sudan will join the continent’s 44 highest ranked nations for the group stage draw that will be held at the SuperSport studios in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The 48 countries will be drawn into 12 groups of four teams each, with the top two teams in each pool qualifying directly to the finals in Morocco.

The first two games of the qualification series will take place in the Fifa window of September (2 to 10), with two other matches in the window of October (7 to 15) and the final two games in the November window (11 to 19).

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