FIFA code ZIM Nickname Warrior | Captain Willard Katsande | |
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Sub-confederation COSAFA(Southern Africa) Arena/Stadium Zimbabwe National Sports Stadium Managers Peter Panayiotides, Kalisto Pasuwa | ||
The Zimbabwe national football team is the national team of Zimbabwe and is controlled by the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA), formally known as the Football Association of Rhodesia. The team were known as the Southern Rhodesia national football team from 1939–1964 when they represented Southern Rhodesia, then the Rhodesia national football team until 1980 representing Rhodesia. They became Zimbabwe in 1980 following the change in the country's status from Zimbabwe Rhodesia. They have never qualified for the World Cup finals, and did not qualify for their first Africa Cup of Nations until 2004.
Contents
- History
- Achievements
- World Cup record
- Africa Cup of Nations record
- African Nations Championship record
- 2017
- Current squad
- Recent call ups
- References
History
Southern Rhodesia played their first official match against the England Amateur national football team as part of their tour of South Africa and Rhodesia. Southern Rhodesia lost their first two matches against England 4–0 and 6–1 respectively. In 1965, following Southern Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence as Rhodesia, FIFA requested that the Football Association of Rhodesia reform to be a multi-racial organisation. Prior to this only white Rhodesians were selected for the national football team but after 1965 the team became multi-racial. In 1969, Rhodesia took part in the Confederation of African Football 1970 FIFA World Cup qualification tournament. This was their first attempt to qualify for the FIFA World Cup. Contrary to the team being viewed as the representative team of white Rhodesians, the team was multi-racial including black players. They were drawn against the Australia national football team. Both legs were held in Lourenco Marques, Portuguese Mozambique as the Rhodesian team were unable to get Australian visas. Rhodesia drew the first leg 1–1 but lost the second leg 3–1 thus eliminating Rhodesia from qualification.
In 1980, following the country's reconstitution as Zimbabwe, they played their first FIFA World Cup qualifying match for 11 years against the Cameroon national football team. However they lost 2–1 on aggregate after a 1–0 win in the first leg in Salisbury and a 2–0 loss in the second leg. Following this, the country passed a law that people who held British passports would not be permitted to hold a Zimbabwean passport, which mean that players such as goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar were not selected for the national team for 10 years. Following a change in policy that allowed Grobbelaar to play for Zimbabwe, who entered the country on his British passport, Zimbabwe under manager Reinhard Fabisch were one match away from qualifying for the 1994 FIFA World Cup. However, they lost their final qualifying match to Cameroon.
In 2004, Zimbabwe qualified for their first Africa Cup of Nations. During their first match against Egypt; their former anthem "Ishe Komborera Africa" was accidentally played instead of "Simudzai Mureza wedu weZimbabwe", an act which Information Minister Johnathan Moyo called ""a cheap attempt by the organisers to demoralise our boys". In 2015, the Zimbabwe national football team were banned from participating in 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying due to an unpaid debt to former coach, José Claudinei.
Achievements
COSAFA Cup :World Cup record
Africa Cup of Nations record
African Nations Championship record
2017
Source: Soccerway
Current squad
The final squad for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations was announced on 4 January 2017. Caps and goals updated as of 23 January 2017 after match against Tunisia.
Recent call-ups
The following players have been called up for Zimbabwe in the last 12 months.