Zimbabwe: Woman soccer player of Zimbabwe’s Mighty Warriors – Cynthia Shonga is quitting football. Her contract with the Harare City Queens finished in December 2023.
On the completion of her contract with the Mighty Warriors, the player revealed that the club owes her money and has failed to pay players their dues, since last season.
Shonga claimed that she is hesitant to have another broken season as the burden of responsibilities at home is tearing her apart.
Considering her achievements, Cynthia Shonga was nominated for the inaugural Confederation of African Football Goalkeeper of the Year Award for 2023. She was recognized with the award after she impressively walked away with the Golden Glove at the Cosafa Women’s Championships.
Shonga joined Harare City from Faith Drive in 2019 and believes in finding a new job that might help her to settle financially.
Goalkeeper Shonga said that she is having a difficult time fending for herself. “I also have some responsibilities that need my attention from which I cannot run away. Issues like rentals and food, need money and without money it is always difficult,” said Shonga.
Shonga expressed further that the most difficult thing is that it comes to a point where she finds herself struggling to buy new soccer boots for herself, which summarizes the environment she is working in and makes it clear that football is not sustaining her.
Talking about the completion of her contract with the Harare City she explained, “My contract with Harare City expired in December. It was my wish to continue with the club. But on another note, the club owes me my money. So naturally, it will be difficult to continue with them as I expect they should settle the dues first.”
Adding more to her words Cynthia Shonga expressed, “It has always been my wish to continue with the club but I don’t see it materializing.” She said that she has also received some offers but they are not what you would expect as a player.
She mentioned that behind every transfer or before signing any contract, she thinks that as a player, it is wise to evaluate the contract and see if it will do justice to yourself. “With all the evaluations I think maybe it’s wise to call it quits and look for another job that I can sustain,” said Cynthia Shonga.