Coach Chiquinho Conde is already performing the duties of a national coach, even though he has not yet reached a formal agreement with the Mozambican Football Federation (FMF), as there is a disagreement over the clause that makes the link invalid if the "Mambas" fail to qualify for CAN-Morocco-2025, where the qualifying phase will take place over the next three months, from September to November this year..

Last week, at the request of the FMF, Chiquinho Conde delivered the list of players pre-selected for the first two rounds of Group "I" qualifying for CAN-2025, in which the "Mambas" will face Mali and Guinea-Bissau, in Bamako and Maputo respectively.

A publication by Challenge newspaper says that the delivery of the list of pre-selected players took place a few days after the coach landed in Maputo on Sunday last week (04), having left Portugal, where he had been since he left the country with the "Mambas" on June 7, for Morocco, where three days later (10) they played and beat Guinea Conakry (1-0), in the fourth round of Group "I" of the African qualifying zone for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

From the list, Kadre, Ejaita and Hamed, from the Black Bulls Association (ABB), now recently naturalized, are part of the Mambas' pre-season squad.

Made up of 47 players, the Mambas' pre-season squad includes absentees and returnees. Lau King is not on the list after having been in the national team's last double-header against Somalia and Guinea Conakry, in qualifying matches for the 2026 World Cup.

Among the returnees is Mozambican international Shaquille Nangy, now playing for Sagrada Esperança, a club in Angola's top flight, Girabola.

The highlight also goes to Amâncio Canhemba, a player from Ferroviário de Maputo, who in the reopening of the second round of Moçambola scored two goals in his team's victory over his Lichinga counterpart. Apart from these new additions, Chiquinho Conde has kept the structure of the last squad.

(Photo DR)