Zimbabwean Warriors captain Knowledge “Smiling Assassin” Musona has proclaimed his team as the Ajax Amsterdam of the Afcon.
Musona was responding to questions about the tricky Group A which sees them pitted against the hosts Egypt, former champions Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda.
Musona will be leading the Warriors to their second consecutive Afcon under the current generation. They were in Gabon two years ago, but couldn’t proceed beyond the group stages.
Zimbabwe will be up against a fully packed Cairo International Stadium when they Egypt in the opening game on Friday evening (kick-off at 22:00). And Musona expects his troops to cause an upset.
Zimbabwe is coming to this tournament with Sunday Chidzambwa at the helm, he’s arguably the most successful Zim Warriors coach as he’s heading to his third Afcon and has also won the most number of Cosafa titles.
In their past three appearances at the Afcon, Zimbabwe have never made it to the knockout stages and the Anderlecht striker wants to change that.
Alarming news from the Warriors camp is that Kaizer Chiefs star player Khama Billiat has been carrying a knock and didn’t train from last Friday, it’s still not clear if he will be up and running before Friday’s all important encounter.
The secret of this team is that they’ve been together since the junior national teams.
Zimbabwe has got a total of 15 South African based players in its squad, 13 from the PSL and two from the NFD.
In total there’s 46 players plying their trade in the South African leagues in this Afcon, in terms of representation the PSL and the NFD are only second to France (88) in terms of representation in this tourney.
Musona, who made his name at Chiefs before being sold to Bundesliga side Hoffeinheim before moving to Belgium, says the South African PSL has done a lot to transform Zimbabwean football by providing them with the platform to showcase their talent. – Report by Velile Mnyandu
