Zimbabwe national football team

Infobox National football team
Name = Zimbabwe
Badge = Zimbabwe_FA.gif| Nickname = The Warriors
Association = Zimbabwe Football Association
Confederation = CAF (Africa)
Coach = flagicon|Brazil Valinhos
Most caps =
Top scorer = Benjani Mwaruwari (32)
Home Stadium = National Sports Stadium
FIFA Trigramme = ZIM
FIFA Rank = 83
FIFA max = 40
FIFA max date = April 1995
FIFA min = 101
FIFA min date = August 2007
Elo Rank = 97

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First game =flagicon|Southern Rhodesia|1923 Southern Rhodesia 0 - 4 England XI flagicon|England (Salisbury, Rhodesia; 26 June 1939)
Largest win =flagicon|Botswana Botswana 0 - 7 Zimbabwe flagicon|Zimbabwe (Gaborone, Botswana; 26 August 1990)
Largest loss =flagicon|Southern Rhodesia|1923 Southern Rhodesia 1 - 6 England XI flagicon|England (Salisbury, Rhodesia; 29 June 1939)
flagicon|Southern Rhodesia|1923 Southern Rhodesia 0 - 5 Australia flagicon|Australia (Salisbury, Rhodesia; 14 June 1950)
flagicon|Côte d'Ivoire Côte d'Ivoire 5 - 0 Zimbabwe flagicon|Zimbabwe (Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire; 13 August 1989)
flagicon|Zaire Zaire 5 - 0 Zimbabwe flagicon|Zimbabwe (Kinshasa, Zaire; 4 June 1995)
World cup apps =
World cup first =
World cup best =
Regional name = African Nations Cup
Regional cup apps = 2
Regional cup first = 2004
Regional cup best = Round 1, 2004 and 2006

The Zimbabwe national football team, nicknamed "The Warriors", is the national team of Zimbabwe and is controlled by the Zimbabwe Football Association. They were known as the Rhodesia national football team until 1980, when Rhodesia became Zimbabwe. They have never qualified for the World Cup finals, and did not qualify for their first African Nations Cup until 2004.

Zimbabwe Football Achievements

:COSAFA Cup :::*3 Times Champion (2000, 2003, 2005)::*2 Times Runners-Up:CECAFA Cup :::*1 Time Champion (1985)

World Cup record

1930 to 1966

Rhodesia did not enter the competition.

1970 Qualifiers

Preliminary round

Rhodesia failed to qualify after losing out to Australia.

23 November 1969, Lourenço Marques, Mozambique - fb|AUS 1 - 1 fb|Rhodesia

27 November 1969, Lourenço Marques, Mozambique - fb|Rhodesia 0 - 0 fb|AUS

Group stages

However Zimbabwe narrowly missed out on their maiden World Cup finals, finishing second behind Cameroon.

2006 Qualifiers

Zimbabwe were drawn in the same group as Nigeria and Algeria. They failed to qualify for the 2006 World Cup held in Germany, finishing third behind Nigeria and Angola.

2010 Qualifiers

Zimbabwe were drawn in the same group as Namibia, Guinea and Kenya with the 12 group winners and 8 best runners-up progressing to second round of qualification.

The Warriors started qualification under manager Valinhos with a 0-0 draw away to Guinea on 1 June. Namibia were then defeated 2-0 on 8 June at the Rufaro Stadium, Harare to send Zimbabwe to the top of their 2010 World Cup & Africa Cup of Nations qualification group.

African Nations Cup record

*1957 to 1980 - "Did not enter"
*1982 to 2002 - "Did not qualify"
*2004 - Round 1
*2006 - Round 1
*2008 - "Did not qualify"

Current Squad

The following players were called for the friendly match against Oman on 10 September 2008.

Recent call-ups

Notable / Former players

*Peter Ndlovu
*Benjamin Konjera
*Adam Ndlovu
*Vitalis "Digital" Takawira
*Benjani Mwaruwari
*Bruce Grobbelaar
*Norman Mapeza
*Joshua Mahaka
*Nqobizitha Ncube
*Freddy Mkwesha
*Moses Chunga
*George Shaya
*Eddie Mukahanana
*Esrom Nyandoro
*Sunday "Mhofu" Chidzambwa Marimo
*Mutambirwa "suca" Tapiwa

External links

* [http://www.zimbabwesoccer.com/ Zimbabwe soccer] official site
* [http://www.talkzimbabwe.com/ Sports news] TalkZimbabwe