Zimbabwe coach Michael Nees has admitted that winger Khama Billiat was the missing ingredient in the side as they secured qualification for the 2025 Africa Cup Of Nations.
The Warriors qualified with a match to spare sitting in second position in Group J with nine points from five matches, two points behind group leaders Cameroon from the same number of games.
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Billiat had retired from international football in 2021, two months before the start of AFCON, saying he was making way for new talent to blossom and serve the country.
However, he changed his mind this year before the qualifiers against Kenya and Cameroon to boost the team. The former Mamelodi Sundowns and Kaizer Chiefs attacker assisted the goal that booked the Warriors’ place in Morocco next year against Kenya in Polokwane.
Nees said that Billiat was the missing creative heart and the Association had to meet his conditions to be able to bring him back to the team.
“When I watched all the games, I always felt there is a player missing behind the striker or who can make the difference,” Nees answered an iDiski Times question.
“They were all good footballers. They were all very powerful and this and that but there was something like a creative heart missing. And I know Khama from his football career and I observed how he performed when he was back in Zimbabwe and then I approached him.
“I had to approach the club, although it was not just that you phone, ‘hey, you want to play again for the national team’.
“These players and others you always write about, they have conditions and the conditions are not about money or something like that. They have conditions that the things around the team are run fully professional.
“They don’t want to come from retirement and one month later retire again or resign again. They want that everything is clean around the team, from the hotel booking up to the match venue, to the flight bookings, up to the player selection to the final selection on the pitch.
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“They even can accept to be on the bench, but they want to know that everything from a football, from a professional, from a sports point of view, is run appropriately. We are a small Federation, but everybody is giving the best.”
