Cymru and Africa (pt.4) – Zimbabwe, Guinea and Eritrea
So we’ve been to Egypt, The Gambia, Tunisia and this year’s African Cup of Nations hosts Cote D’Ivoire. Next in our series of blogs exploring the links between Cymru and Africa we head to Zimbabwe, Guinea and Eritrea
Zimbabwe
In August 1971 in then Rhodesia, John Robinson was born to a Scottish father and Rhodesian mother in Bulawayo. He later spent time in Durban, South Africa before settling on the English south coast where he eventually joined Brighton before moving for £75,000 to Charlton Athletic.
Qualifying for Scotland via his father and for the other home nations courtesy of his British passport, Robinson opted for Wales where he won 16 u21 caps before graduating to full honours aged 24 in a Euro 1996 qualifier away to Albania, along with fellow debutants Gareth Taylor (the other one) and Robbie Savage.
Despite playing during a lean period for Wales, over the course of his 30 caps he won over Wales fans with his industry, effort and commitment. He scored 3 goals: vs San Marino, Belarus and Qatar.
Born in Harare, Alec Mudimu was playing for Cefn Druids when he was a surprise call up for the 2018 Four Nations Tournament in which The Warriors compete with Zambia, Angola and South Africa. Zimbabwe lost twice, both times on penalties after conceding injury time equalisers. Mudimu also played at the 2018 COSAFA Cup in South Africa where they fared better in their two knockout shootouts against Botswana and Lesotho en route to claiming their sixth COSAFA title.
In 2019 he was selected in Zimbabe’s AFCON squad and by the time of the 2021 tournament he had swapped Cefn Mawr and Wales for Tiraspol and Moldova. Further moves to Georgia, Altrincham, Caernarfon and Fflint, Mudimu is now in Tunisia but won’t be at this year’s tournament because Zimbabwe (along with Kenya) were suspended from international competition due to governmental interference in the national FA.
In November 2020, Zimbabwe u23 international Shama Bako swapped Bulawayo for Borth when he was announced as one of trio of Aberystwyth Town signing. Last seen in England’s seventh tier with Bromsgrove Sporting.
Lendl Guest – someone whose parents might have been big 80s tennis fans spent time with Port Talbot between 2015 and 2016.
Guinea
Before Gambia’s Jacob Mendy, Wrexham had another West African player: Mathias Pogba, older brother of Paul with whom he lived when the latter was in his first spell at Manchester United. Pogba was at The Racecourse for two seasons after impressing on trial from Breton club Quimper. He started slowly, not scoring his first goal until the January of his first season. Despite being offered a contract extension, Pogba declined in the hope of playing at a higher level. He eventually departed under a cloud – Wrexham manager Andy Morrell called him “disrespectful” – and he signed for Crewe where he won the first of his five caps for Guinea.
21 cap, 3 goal Guinea international Sory Kaba joined Cardiff City on loan on the final day of the 2023 January transfer window from Midtjylland. Kaba made his Guinea debut in 2017 whilst on the books of Elche in Spain, the country to which he moved from Guinea as a child. He was selected in Guinea’s squads for the 2019 and 2021 AFCON tournaments but has missed out on selection this time round.
Despite scoring an overhead kick at Watford, and scoring the goals that kept Cardiff up according to our Gareth he was “in reality no more than a bottom half championship striker on a decent run of games”. Now at Las Palmas.
Yalany Cuino Baio is to Bangor City what Richard Burton was to Elizabeth Taylor. Thrice he has signed for them, though is currently on the books of Llandudno and has spent time with Cefn Druids. His international eligibility is a right cawl:
Baio was born in Guinea-Bissau to a Guinean father and mother from Guinea-Bissau, but raised in Portugal whose citizenship he holds and who he represented at u18 level. Though he had officially nominated Guinea-Bissau as his footballing nationality, he accepted a call-up to play for Guinea against Chad in a 2015 friendly. FIFA subsequently refused to recognise the game and that remains his only – unofficial – cap.
Eritrea
Haben Samson is an Eritrean currently at Cardiff Met FC and is currently uncapped, that said no-one has won an Eritrean cap in four years.
After years of civil war, Eritrea declared independence from neighbouring Ethiopia in 1993, joining the United Nations as its 182nd member. Its FA was founded in 1996 and within two years had affiliated to FIFA and CAF in 1998, though it had played matches against east African neighbours such as Kenya, Tanzania and Sudan in 1992 and 1994.
Their record since FIFA membership is modest: only 14 wins in 84 official internationals. However, at the end of 2019 in successive CECAFA Cup games games, and despite being the lowest ranked team participating, the ‘Red Sea Boys’, finished runners-up to hosts Uganda and en route to the final recorded their record wins: 3-0 over Djibouti; 4-1 over Kenya.
The biggest reason for the modest record is the number of players who abscond or refuse to return from away matches and tournaments in order to seek asylum. For example, in 2012, 17 Eritreans and the team’s doctor vanished after the CECAFA championship tournament in Uganda; ten players refused to return home after playing a 2018 World Cup qualifier in Botswana; and in 2021, five members from Eritrea’s u20 women’s team disappeared when on international duty in Uganda.
The Eritrean FA responded by refusing to play matches. Accordingly, they are currently unranked by FIFA (with an all-time high ranking of 125th in 2007).
