A WEEK has already gone by since the Confederation of African Football placed Zimbabwe in the same group with Cameroon, Kenya, and Namibia, in the run for Afcon 2025 in Morocco.
This tells us how time moves more than we see it and the re-appointed Zifa normalisation committee should begin counting towards Afcon 2025 now rather than later.
That the first match is on September 2 away to Kenya might look far away but in reality the game is just around the corner and Lincoln Mutasa and friends are advised to get the preparations rolling now rather than later.
The starting point should be the appointment of a coach and after the disastrous experiment with Jairos Tapera, a foreign coach would be the ideal choice for the Warriors of Zimbabwe.
Those defeats to Lesotho and South Africa and the Cosafa Cup exit at the hands of an Angolan Under - 23 side has left many doubting the pedigree of our local coaches to handle the Warriors.
This is so because the Zimbabwean bench had what could best be described as the best coaching brains around with Tapera, Takesure Chiragwi, Saul Chaminuka, and Sunday Chidzambwa, yet the results were very disappointing.
Surely, we do not need to experiment with the locals any further or to call those big names which applied for the job because the right coach for Zimbabwe is there and just waiting for a call from the Zifa normalisation committee — and that coach is Baltermar Brito.
Brito worked in Zimbabwe at Highlanders for a year and was the Warriors coach in their drawn World Cup Qualifiers against Rwanda and Nigeria and as such knows his way around the corridors of Zimbabwean football.
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He knows the Zimbabwean players well and knows too that Zimbabwe does not have too much money and has always wanted to be coach of this Warriors team at this level of competition.
He is well respected by the players as evidenced by the stability and discipline that was in camp when the Warriors were in Rwanda for their 2026 World Cup adventure.
What can you expect from a man who worked with Jose Mourinho and for that matter at Chelsea to be treated by the players except with honour and respect?
Surely, the Brazilian does not have a big name in African football and what we have seen in him is a man who wants to become big in Africa through the success of his Warriors.
We are not sure who exactly in the normalisation committee was against the Brazilian's appointment but whoever it was, now is not the time to pursue vendettas but to make the right decisions for the sake of the Zimbabwean game.
Surely, Brito is the man we have been given in the same way we were given the late Reinhard Fabisch in the 90s and what we need is to open our hands, give him the chance and see where he will take us.
Without sounding repetitive, Herve Renard was not known when he was given the chance by Zambia and he took the Chipolopolo to the top and made a name for himself.
The same happened to Fabisch. He was not known when he came to Zimbabwe but became famous all over Africa after taking the Warriors to 13 unbeaten Afcon and World Cup matches and in the process shooting Zimbabwe to ninth in Africa on the Fifa world rankings.
The Afcon group we are in with Cameroon, Kenya, and Namibia, is one we can even finish atop but that can only be achieved with the right choice of coach.
As things stand right now, Baltermar Brito is the man.
*For your views, comments, and suggestions mkariati@gmail.com or WhatsApp on 0773 266 779.
