Sports / Soccer
Luis Suarez, Diago Forlan coming to Zimbabwe?
14 Mar 2013 at 10:03hrs | Views
ZIMBABWE and Uruguay are seeking to improve relations and the recent visit by the national senior women's football team to the South American country could be the first step in that direction, Uruguay's ambassador of foreign affairs for Africa said.
The Mighty Warriors were invited for a one-week tour of Uruguay where they played three friendly matches, two against the Uruguay senior women's football team and one against a national Under-20 team.
Zimbabwe drew 3-3 and won 2-1 against Uruguay's senior team, ranked 68 on the Fifa women's world rankings - 24 places better than the Mighty Warriors - before beating the Under-20 side 5-1, a team that participated in the Under-20 Fifa World Cup.
During the visit, the Mighty Warriors were invited to a luncheon by Montevideo mayor Ana Olivera which was attended by top government officials including Uruguay's ambassador of foreign affairs for Africa, Alfredo Raggio.
Speaking to NewsDay Sport on the sidelines of the luncheon, Raggio said the visit by the Mighty Warriors was a first step in improving the relations between Montevideo and Harare.
"The visit by the Zimbabwe women's football team here is just a first step and we want to see this relationship grow," Raggio said.
"We will make sure that our team also travel to Zimbabwe in the near future on this exchange programme. The next step would be to see all our national teams visiting Zimbabwe and them doing likewise. It would be a very good idea because football is improving in Africa and it would be good to have some friendly matches there.
"We have well known international players in men's soccer like Luis Suarez and Diego Forlan and the people of Zimbabwe can have an opportunity to see them play," he added.
Uruguay women's national team will be expected to visit Harare in July this year.
The Mighty Warriors were invited for a one-week tour of Uruguay where they played three friendly matches, two against the Uruguay senior women's football team and one against a national Under-20 team.
Zimbabwe drew 3-3 and won 2-1 against Uruguay's senior team, ranked 68 on the Fifa women's world rankings - 24 places better than the Mighty Warriors - before beating the Under-20 side 5-1, a team that participated in the Under-20 Fifa World Cup.
During the visit, the Mighty Warriors were invited to a luncheon by Montevideo mayor Ana Olivera which was attended by top government officials including Uruguay's ambassador of foreign affairs for Africa, Alfredo Raggio.
"The visit by the Zimbabwe women's football team here is just a first step and we want to see this relationship grow," Raggio said.
"We will make sure that our team also travel to Zimbabwe in the near future on this exchange programme. The next step would be to see all our national teams visiting Zimbabwe and them doing likewise. It would be a very good idea because football is improving in Africa and it would be good to have some friendly matches there.
"We have well known international players in men's soccer like Luis Suarez and Diego Forlan and the people of Zimbabwe can have an opportunity to see them play," he added.
Uruguay women's national team will be expected to visit Harare in July this year.
Source - newsday
