Thursday, January 25, 2007

Football in Mozambique

I am not in Mozambique due to football. The beautiful country has been little known for anything to do with football, except for the fact that Eusebio, Portugal's best player ever, was actually born in Mozambique, during the days of Portuguese colonialism.

Mozambique has never played a World Cup, they have qualified for only three African Cups, where they were eliminated in the first round each time. Not impressive.

The Mambas, as the national team is called, took part in the preliminary qualifiers in the African zone for the 2006 World Cup. They lost to Guinea after two matches, and that was it for Mozambique's world cup adventure. Not impressive.

Football is popular all over Africa, and many teams compete at highest level. Another lusophone colony, Angola, played their first world cup in 2006, and many should be on the way. However, it doesn't seem Mozambique is one country we will see in the world cup in any foreseeable future. Although I wouldn't bet on it, I have personally been known to have good karma for local teams: Silkeborg IF won their first (and only) Danish Championship when I was there; Ghana qualified for their first world cup when I was there; Valencia qualified for their first champions league final when I was there.

I won't promise Mozambique anything, but I shall do my best while I am in the country :-)

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