FORMER Warriors captain Benjani Mwaruwari has been appointed assistant coach of the Zimbabwe senior national team.

Mwaruwari, who recently attained a UEFA A License, was roped in by the ZIFA board at their meeting yesterday to work under Croatian head coach, Zdravko Logarusic.

He becomes the third assistant, along with Tonderai Ndiraya and Lloyd Chitembwe. According to the ZIFA board resolutions, Mwaruwari’s appointment is with immediate effect.

The former Manchester City forward is expected to join the Warriors when they begin their 2022 World Cup qualifiers against South Africa next week. Zimbabwe are also set to travel to Ethiopia for their second Group B game on September 7.

There has been persistent pressure from the football stakeholders to fire Loga following a string of poor results in the last 18 months. The Warriors have managed one win in 12 outings under Loga.

However, the ZIFA executive committee decided against sacking the Croatian, and instead, sought to beef up the technical team by adding

Mwaruwari to the bench. ZIFA spokesperson Xolisani Gwesela confirmed the developments.

“The Executive Committee received a progress report from the Technical and Development Committee with regards to all matches played in 2021.

“The Exco resolved that the technical teams will remain unchanged. The Exco further resolved to augment the Warriors’ technical team by appointing Benjani Mwaruwari as an assistant coach. The appointment is with immediate effect,” said Gwesela.

hmetro