Online Reporter
Tadious Manyepo
Zimpapers Sports Hub
IT was like a throwback to 2004.
The party at the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport as Sunday Chidzambwa and his Warriors left for our maiden appearance at the AFCON finals.
Now, two decades later, the same carnival scenes swept through the same airport yesterday as the Warriors left for Morocco.
They are carrying more than just kit bags and passports. They left with belief, noise and a nation expecting something big at the AFCON finals.
It started in Msasa, where the team have been camped for the past three weeks.
Traffic slowed to a crawl as a colourful convoy rolled out, winding through Samora Machel Avenue, Glenara and Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Expressway, forcing motorists to pause and take it in.
This was not a quiet departure.
By the time the buses pulled up at the airport, a brass band was already in full voice.
Singing, ululation and waving flags set the tone as fans gathered to see off Marian “Super Mario” Marinica’s men in fitting style.
A red carpet greeted the players as they stepped off the bus, briefly clogging the international departures gate.
Phones were lifted, cameras clicked and journalists and supporters squeezed in for a word, a photo, a moment.
It was loud, crowded and alive.
It was organised chaos, the kind of spectacle supporters always hope for when the national team travels. Something has shifted.
There is a new mood sweeping across the country.
At the centre of it is fresh leadership at ZIFA, fronted by Nqobile Magwizi, whose credibility has already travelled far.
There is also a new man on the Warriors bench.
Super Mario arrives with a mark no Zimbabwe coach before him has carried into an AFCON tournament.
He knows the route beyond the group stage.
Super Mario said:
“Let me say that thank you all for giving up your time to try and support us.
“I want to say a big thank you to the Government of Zimbabwe for supporting us and especially to the Minister of Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture Anselem Sanyatwe who visited us twice encouraging us and giving us words of wisdom.
“Special mention also goes to ZIFA and all its stakeholders for making our two camps available and to our sponsors Ecobank for additional support.
“The Rufaro Stadium management and staff have been amazing, they enabled us to train in suitable conditions and to all the fans and supporters that are encouraging us.”
There is a new captain too.
Marvelous Nakamba steps in after the eras of Ndlovu, Benjani Mwaruwari in 2006, Willard Katsande in 2016 and Knowledge Musona in 2019 and 2021.
Maybe he brings a different kind of fortune, the kind Zimbabwe need to finally push through the ceiling.
With their flight scheduled for 7pm, the Warriors had loosened up earlier in the day at Rufaro to keep the edge sharp.
What they saw later was something entirely different.
For close to half an hour, everything else at the airport froze. Stakeholders, fans and officials gave the team their moment.
It was a send-off worthy of a squad trimmed down from an initial 56-man provisional list.
Mathew Masinge