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Sports Reporter
THE football awards season kicks off in earnest today with an elaborate ceremony set to be held for ambitious Mozambican-owned Lower Division side Ferroviario de Zimbabwe FC in Harare.

The Harare Province Division Three side were formed in 2012 and hosted their opponents in Epworth where they were characteristically invincible and concluded their home fixtures undefeated, which contributed to their remarkable top five-place finish at the end of the programme.

Ferroviario de Zimbabwe spiced up their 2015 season by winning the Mashonaland East Zimbabwe Defence Forces Cup when they beat army side Harare Sables 2-1 in the final at Rudhaka on August 11 this year.

Inspired by the famous Ferroviario teams of neighbouring Mozambique, the Zimbabwean team is in the hunt for a First Division franchise with hopes of progressing to the Premier Soccer League in due course.

Esmeralda Massingue, club director, said they are the first side this year to honour their outstanding players with end-of-season prizes and provoke other local clubs into similar action throughout the impending off- season.

‘We felt we should not only show appreciation to our players but also bring them together with the community especially the football fans from Epworth and surrounding areas and groom them in the top hierarchy personality while at lower level for their future career in football. We believe sport is a vehicle for community and social development,’’ said Mas- singue.

Ferroviario de Zimbabwe is mainly comprised of players of Mozambican descent who form a significant number especially in the Epworth community.

Massingue said they would be entering the market for new players for next season as they had previously relied on youthful talent, including schoolboys, who were able to withstand the competi- tion.

“We are not restricting membership of the team to Mozambican- parented players alone. We actually have Zimbabwean, Malawian and Zambian players in the team.

”Every gifted player is welcome to our team as long they are below the age of 23 so as to promote youth development,’’ added Massingue, who is a social scientist based in Harare.

Among guests expected to grace the occasion are officials from ZIFA and CAPS United with whom they have formed excellent rap- port.

Ferroviario last year organised a friendly international between CAPS and visiting Mozambican side Chingale de Tete.

CAPS returned the visit to Tete in June this year.

Massingue highlighted that they will be promoting further ties between other top Zimbabwean and Mozambican football teams next year.