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Sports Reporter

ZIFA have appointed Baltemar Brito as the head coach of the Zimbabwe national men’s team coach.

The 71-year-old Portuguese gaffer will be assisted by Bongani Mafu and Genesis Mangombe bof Dynamos.

Both Brito and Mangombe will retain their contracts at Highlanders and Dynamos respectively.

Brito and his assistants’ first assignment will be the invitational match to celebrate Botswana’s Independence Day on 30 September.

Thereafter, they will have to begin working on creating a team to compete in the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers in November.

“The Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) is pleased to inform the nation that it has appointed Baltemar Brito as the head coach of the senior men’s team forthwith until June 2024. He will be assisted by Bongani Mafu and Genesis Mangombe,” said ZIFA in a statement Thuirsday afternoon.

“The Normalisation Committee (NC) settled for the trio after an extensive recruitment and consultative process based on regional, continental, and global confederations’ guidelines.

“The NC set the coaches’ term of engagement to end at the same time with its mandate so that the next board will have the opportunity to recruit its own coaches,” continued the statement.

“ZIFA would like to thank Highlanders FC and Dynamos for allowing their employees to serve the nation. The coaches will remain with their clubs, and will be reporting for national assignments as and when required to do so.

“The association pleads for the nation’s patience as it continues with the recruitment of remaining national teams’ coaches. Names of the coaches will be revealed once the process is complete.”