DeMbare still the best

Fungai Muderere .
DO you still remember Gunners FC, the side which was relegated from the countryaï¿½ï¿½s elite football league to the Northern Region Division One League in 2012 and are now known as Yadah Gunners being bankrolled by Prophet Walter Magaya-led PHD Ministries?

While to some local football enthusiasts the side might be dead and buried to the Confederation of African Football (Caf) the club is still alive.

According to recently released statistics by leading site Football DataBase, Gunners are ranked as the 44th best club in Africa!

They had a single dance in the African Safari after they clinched the Premier Soccer League title in 2009, a factor that might account for why the side is so highly ranked despite languishing in Zimbabweaï¿½ï¿½s lower division.

In their 2010 Caf Champions League campaign, Gunners who then boasted of the services of senior national team captain WillardAï¿½ Katsande, shocked African giants Al-Ahly 1aï¿½ï¿½0 at Rufaro Stadium in theirAï¿½ firstAï¿½ round match before eventually bowing out on 2aï¿½ï¿½1 aggregate, after losing the reverse encounter 2aï¿½ï¿½0 in Cairo.

This was after then Zimbabwean champions successfully negotiated their way past an equally unknown quantity from Zanzibar, Mafunzo FC, in the preliminary round to set up a date with fierce Egyptian giants Al Ahly in the first round of the competition.

According to Football DataBase, Dynamos aï¿½ï¿½ the countryaï¿½ï¿½s most successful football team aï¿½ï¿½ are ranked 13th in Africa.

The rankings are calculated based on international club competitions and the site was updated after Africaaï¿½ï¿½s inter club football matches that were played on 8 August 2016.

The Glamour Boys, who last had a dance in the jungles of African football in 2014, sit on position 13, 12 places behind joint top clubs Mamelodi Sundowns (South Africa) and Tunisiaaï¿½ï¿½s Etoile du Sahel and Esperance who are all on 1 588 points.

TP Mazembe (1 587) and Vita Club (1 581), both from DR Congo, complete the top five teams in Africa.

Castle Lager Premier Soccer League pacesetters FC Platinum are ranked 27 and are followed by Highlanders who are number 34. Caps United sit on number 42 while the now defunct Gunners (not the Prophet Magaya sponsored) are 44th best football team on the African continent.

Zimbabwean clubs have had indifferent campaigns both in the Caf Champions League and Caf Confederations Cup, in the process being knocked out in the early stages of both contests.

Such was the case with 2015 League champions Chicken Inn who bowed out ofAï¿½ this yearaï¿½ï¿½s Caf Champions League contest at the preliminary stage following a 2-1 aggregate defeat at the hands of Mamelodi Sundowns.

Expensively assembled Harare City FC were not spared either after they crashed out of the Caf Confederations Cup losing 3-1 to Zanaco in Lusaka, Zambia.

City, then under the tutelage of Taurai Mangwiro, lost the tie on a 5-2 aggregate after losing the first leg 2-1 in Harare.

The Glamour Boys, who are the only club in Zimbabwe that has been able to make it to the Caf Champions League final, have won more league titles than any other team in the entire Southern African region with 19 crowns to their name.