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Sports Reporter

IT was one of football’s finest stories, the one which forced its way into the back pages of some of the world’s biggest newspapers and its most influential sports television channels. 

Five years later, the country continues to enjoy the refreshing feel-good stories, which the Mighty Warriors scripted across the global media landscape, five years ago.

Even, though the team, itself, is now barely recognisable as the side which rocked the world, as they took part in the 2016 Olympics in Brazil.

But, while the Mighty Warriors are now a shadow of that side, the beautiful headlines they scripted, around the world, remain a reminder of a beautiful time when the team danced in the Brazilian sunshine.

Here are some of those beautiful stories, which the Mighty Warriors wrote:

Rob Kirty, ESPN

“The Zimbabwe women’s national team rocketed from near-disqualification to a first-ever Olympic soccer sport in the sort of radical turnabout that tests whether ultra-rapid, earth-to-airspace human ascent could give one the bends.

“The sorting hat then chose for the world No. 93 a deadly draw of two-time world champions Germany (No. 2), Australia (No. 5) and Canada (No. 10) in the group stage — all quarter-finalists, or better, at the 2015 Women’s World Cup.’

“The Mighty Warriors made history as the country’s first team of either gender to earn a global soccer tournament berth. Nigeria, Cameroon and other African women’s soccer giants stay home this summer, but Zimbabwe travels west.

“What makes this incredibly unlikely, and momentous, is that Zimbabwe has no professional women’s league, and its national teams depend on an unreliable trickle down of FIFA funds and outside sponsorship.’’

Christie Blatchford — The National Post (Canada) 

“The Mighty Warriors — every national football team in Zimbabwe is known as the Warriors, but with no way to feminise the name, the players went with ‘Mighty’ — are the first soccer team of either gender from Zim, as natives call their country, to qualify for the Olympics.

“The Warriors drew powerhouse Germany in their opening match, and were pounded 6-1, but they stole the affections of the crowd, who chanted ‘Zim-bab-we!’ throughout. 

“These Canadians face a team forged in hardship, who enjoy no luxuries and few of the advantages they have, but who are a proud group.

“Nothing may speak to that better than some of their first names, the faith-grounded and aspirational names their optimistic parents gave them — there’s Emmaculate, Talent and Rejoice.’’

Chibuogwu Nnadiegbulam — www.unusualstories.com 

“A jour­ney of a thou­sand miles, of sweat, sac­ri­fice and a few smiles — com­bined with re­mark­able goals from Rudo Ne­shamba — brought the Mighty Warriors to the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

“It’s the great­est achievement yet by any na­tional foot­ball team in Zim­babwe.

“It wasn’t so long ago that the Zim­babwe women’s na­tional team played their first in­ter­na­tional match, on Novem­ber 11, 2000. They drew 2-2 against Uganda in the 2000 African Women’s Cham­pi­onship.

“Now, like one fall­ing in love for the first time, the na­tion’s heart beats with ev­ery tick of the clock as Au­gust 3 draws closer.

“Then they will step onto the lush green pitch of the Arena Corinthi­ans in Sao Paulo, kick­ing off their maiden Olympic cam­paign against one of the best teams in the world, Ger­many.

“From be­ing on the verge of dis­qual­i­fi­ca­tion to now liv­ing the dream of a na­tion, the Zim­babwe women will be giv­ing their coun­try their first taste of global foot­ball on that his­toric trip to Brazil.

“This surely is not about hold­ing up the cov­eted gold medal to their lips for a kiss, but about an op­por­tu­nity they just can­not miss, and more so about the re­jected stone be­com­ing the chief corner­stone.’’