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Tadious Manyepo
Sports Reporter
YOUTH, Sport, Arts and Recreation Deputy Minister, Tino Machakaire, has hailed the recruitment of former captain, Benjani Mwaruwari, into the senior national team’s coaching set-up.

The former Manchester City, Portsmouth and Blackburn Rovers forward becomes the third Warriors assistant coach.

He joins a bench led by Zdravko Logarusic, which has Lloyd Chitembwe and Tonderai Ndiraya.

Benjani, who recently attained a UEFA A Licence badge, joined his colleagues on Tuesday and immediately started helping in drilling the Warriors ahead of their 2022 World Cup qualifier, against South Africa, tomorrow.

“The appointment of one of the country’s legends, Benjani Mwaruwari, into the technical team, is a very welcome development, five-star,’’ said Machakaire.

“The technical department has been further strengthened with his coming in and, if you look at it, Benjani was a striker, and we all look forward to seeing many goals being scored by the team.

“The Warriors should win to cheer up the country, given the difficulties, related to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We all love the game and we are rallying behind the team and we hope for the best from them.

“We know we have capable players who can play against any team in the world and we should focus on the task at hand.’’

Machakaire rallied behind the Warriors, who would want to start their latest World Cup campaign, with a victory.

“To ZIFA, and the squad led by coach Zdravko Logarusic, I say good luck and all the best,” he said.

“Firstly, I would like to wish the Warriors all the best, in the match against South Africa, on Friday.

“This is the opening group match of the second round of the qualifiers and it is very important that the team get a victory.

“We know games against South Africa are always tough, and tricky, but I am sure we have a capable team.

“It is very unfortunate that a significant number of players, who the coach called into camp, could not be able to join, due to different reasons but those who are available are also capable of delivering the results.

“We all know that those players who failed to join camp are also rallying behind their colleagues and their colleagues are going to play for them as well.’’

After the match against Bafana Bafana tomorrow, the Warriors will face Ethiopia, away from home, next week, on Tuesday.