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Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Senior Sports Reporter
Former Highlanders gunslinger Prince Mgadaffi Dube, now doing the job for Tanzania’s Azam FC, will be part of the Warriors players expected to troop into camp on December 23 to prepare for the Afcon finals, Chronicle Sport has been told.
Dube, who has been on the casualty ward for the better part of the year, is now back in action and has since played two matches for his club, getting 70 minutes of game time on Sunday against Kagera Sugar in a match that ended nil all.
On Wednesday he rose from the bench to score a brace in a cup game against Green Warriors as Azam cruised to a 4-0 destruction of their opponents.
Mgadaffi struck in the 66th and 87th minutes with his second goal coming five minutes after another fellow Zimbabwean Never Tigere, a former FC Platinum forward, had put his name on the scoresheet.
Azam opened their day’s account five minutes from the start courtesy of Idris Mbombo. Another Zimbabwean and former Highlanders utility player Bruce Kangwa was part of the match day starting line up and played the whole match.
Sources yesterday said Warriors coach Norman Mapeza was a long time admirer of the former Somvubu High School pupil and had always wanted to have him in the squad had it not been for the injuries.
“Now that Prince is back in the field, he will certainly catch Mapeza’s eye, make no mistake about that, in fact I am 100 percent sure that the young man will be part of the squad flying to Cameroon on December 29,” said a Warriors insider.
While Zifa has already registered their provisional 40 men squad that will be trimmed to the official 23 that will be taken care of by Caf, it has since emerged that organisers of the 33rd edition of the Afcon finals have resolved to be flexible and scrutinise each request on a case by case basis.
“While provisional squads have been registered Caf has told us that they are going to look at each request to register new players outside the provisional list on a case by case basis, on our part we had told Caf of the possibility of new faces outside the 40 that we submitted so if the technical team decides to exercise that route, Caf shall be engaged,” said Zifa acting chief executive officer Xolisani Gwesela.
Meanwhile, Afcon finalists can now register up to
28 players in their final list, up from 23, provided they foot the bill for the extra five players, according to Samson Adamu, Caf director of competitions through a letter to member associations.
“In the occasion of the upcoming final tournament of the TOTALENERGIES Africa Cup of Nations – Cameroon 2021, the Organising Committee of the Africa Cup of Nations has decided to increase the number of players to 28, instead of 23.
“Consequently, the list of players could be increased to a maximum of 28 players. This decision was taken to allow the participating teams to have a larger squad list for the competition in case some players test positive for Covid-19.
“On the other hand, please note that your federation would bear the cost of the international travel as well as the accommodation of these additional players on the final list.
“In view of the above, we would like to inform you that the registration of the five additional players is only an option and not an obligation,” read the letter.
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