Zimbabwe captain Knowledge Musona looks set to retire from international football after the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations.
Musona has been embroiled within the controversy that saw the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) board suspended last week as he was asked to provide a formal submission to an inquiry into missing money from 2019 AFCON in Egypt.
In a lengthy statement that iDiski Times has in their possession, the former Hoffenheim and Anderlecht forward revealed how the issues of non-payments affected the squad – which they notably stages protests over in Cairo during their ill-fated campaign.
“There is a general feeling that players are not important and that causes unnecessary friction as players feel they deserve some kind of respect, which respect was not being shown in all this ordeal,” read part of the statement.
“As players, we felt we were not treated the way expected. As captain of the team I had to be asked every day about money issues by players and it was difficult to keep them focused for matches…
“In future, a better plan should be used to ensure the team concentrates on playing and not worry about money negotiations.”
It’s been alleged that several of the players’ monies, which was supplied by the Zimbabwe government and the Confederation of African Football (CAF) during the tournament were either paid late to the players or not received at all from ZIFA and certain members of the squad paid for their own flights to return home after the tournament.
Despite all the behind the scenes issues, Musona has remained loyal to his nation but the upcoming event could be his last after he signalled his intention to hang up his boots after 11 years with the senior national team.
“Knowledge Musona has indicated that he will retire after the AFCON tournament, this was also the impression that was created by Khama, that he would retire after the tournament,” team manager Wellington Mpandare tells iDiski Times.
“This is why we want to sort of press him to participate at AFCON and retire after. Knowledge has been the national team captain for some time now, as much as we want him to continue playing for the national team.
“I think retiring after AFCON would be a could thing for him, hopefully, the team will make history by progressing from the group stages. It depends on how we’re going to fare because soon after AFCON, there are qualifiers for AFCON 2023.
“We’ll start immediately so there’s no time to prepare so we might convince Knowledge to stay and have a last dance with the AFCON qualifiers.
“If we make it to the 2023 AFCON it would be a record for him to make four consecutive AFCON tournaments under his belt which is a great achievement and we hope we’ll be able to convince Knowledge to stay.”
The 31-year-old has scored 24 goals in 49 appearances for the Warriors since making his senior international debut as a teenager under Sunday Chidzambwa back in March 2010.
