When Football Changes Everything: The Untold Stories of Zimbabwe's Homeless World Cup Teams
| Zimbabwe at the Seoul 2024 Homeless World Cup. Photo: Anita Milas,
By Joe Kuseka
There is a dusty pitch in Hatcliffe Extension, a patch of hard ground where hope is as scarce as water. But on any given afternoon, you will find young feet chasing a worn-out ball, their eyes burning with a hunger that has nothing to do with food. That hunger is for something bigger, a chance, a way out, a life that doesn't look like the one they were given.
For two decades, Young Achievement Sports for Development (YASD) has been quietly turning that hunger into triumph. From Glen Norah to Mabvuku, from Bulawayo to Seke, the Harare-based non-profit has plucked young people from the margins and placed them on the world stage—the Homeless World Cup. What started in 2005 as a desperate response to forced displacement and school dropouts has become a lifeline that has sent teams to more than ten international tournaments, and more importantly, has sent a handful of players into professional football careers that once seemed impossible.
This is not a story about statistics. It is a story about Linnet, who nearly quit the game she loved until a tournament in Seoul saved her. It is about Misheck, who learned in Amsterdam that a football can rebuild a life—and now captains a professional side, passing that lesson to the next generation. It is about Anthony, whose lethal finishing on the streets of Dema now makes him a lethal scorer in Zimbabwe's Northern Region league. And it is about Prince and Leeroy, whose dreams are just beginning to take flight.
These are the faces of YASD. These are the stories that prove football is not just a game—it is a second chance.
The Goalkeeper Who Would Not Quit
| Linnet Moyo won the Best Goalkeeper Award at the Seoul 2024 Homeless World Cup in the Men’s Tournament.
Photo: YASD
Linnet Moyo was ready to walk away. In early 2024, the 25-year-old from Nkulumane 12 in Bulawayo had lost her spark. Football, the one thing that had always made sense, felt heavy. She was on the brink of quitting for good.
Then YASD came calling.
Linnet was selected for Zimbabwe’s squad at the Seoul 2024 Homeless World Cup. Nations can enter mixed teams in the Men’s competition and Linnet was the only woman representing Zimbabwe on the pitch in South Korea’s capital city.
What happened next still feels like a dream. Zimbabwe won the DLive Trophy. Linnet stood between the posts, saved three penalties and walked away with the Best Goalkeeper award—in the Men's competition.
"I had been on the brink of quitting earlier in 2024," she recalls, her voice still carrying the disbelief. "The Homeless World Cup rekindled my passion for football. It reignited my love for the game."
Today, Linnet is a goalkeeper for Correctional Queens in Zimbabwe's Women's Premier Soccer League, and her ambition has only grown. She has already travelled to Denmark for trials, and while that move didn't materialise, her fire remains unquenched. She dreams of playing for top teams—even outside Zimbabwe. And she is proof that sometimes, all a person needs is one chance to remember why they started.
The Captain Who Learned to Rebuild Lives
| "The Amsterdam experience taught me that football can rebuild a life,” Misheck Nyakanyanga. Photo: YASD
Misheck Nyakanyanga still carries memories of Amsterdam with him. It was 2015, and he was a young man representing Zimbabwe at the Homeless World Cup, his first taste of international football. The tournament didn't just teach him how to play—it taught him how to live.
"The Amsterdam experience taught me that football can rebuild a life," he says simply.
That lesson has become his compass. Today, Misheck is the club captain of CP Chemicals, a prominent side in Zimbabwe's Northern Region Soccer League. He leads a team that includes fellow YASD graduate Anthony Ngwasha, and he has taken on a role far beyond the captain's armband. He mentors younger players, passing on the discipline and resilience he forged on that global stage a decade ago.
| Misheck Nyakanyanga represented Zimbabwe at the Amsterdam 2016 Homeless World Cup. Photo: YASD
For Misheck, the journey from the streets to the professional ranks is not just about personal success—it is about paying it forward. Every time he steps onto the pitch, he remembers the boy who left for Amsterdam with nothing but a dream and returned with a purpose.
The Marksman from Dema
Anthony Ngwasha's story is one that scouts dream of. A member of the Seoul 2024 squad, Anthony came from Dema—a place where professional football is not a career path but a fantasy. But his clinical finishing, honed on rough pitches and against older, tougher opponents, caught the eye of various professional teams.
Today, Anthony is the leading goalscorer for CP Chemicals, a feat that has made him one of the most talked-about strikers in Zimbabwe's Northern Region. His rise has been described as "a testament to the Homeless World Cup's ability to unearth raw talent from the most unlikely places." And it is not just a cliché—it is his life.
He shares a dressing room with his captain Misheck, and together, they are living proof that the Homeless World Cup is not a dead end, but a launching pad.
The Rising Stars
Prince Mwateba and Leeroy Chidzidzi were also part of that historic Seoul squad. While their professional stories are still being written, they have already taken a giant leap—they are now signed to a professional academy affiliated with Scotland FC, the current Zimbabwean champions.
They are the next chapter in YASD's legacy. Young, hungry, and carrying the same fire that drove Linnet and Misheck and Anthony before them. Their journeys are unfolding now, and if history is any guide, they will not stop until they have reached the top.
| Rutenda Kuseka represented Zimbabwe and YASD at the Africa Women’s Cup in Arusha, Tanzania. Photo: HWCF
More Than Just Football
But YASD's impact reaches far beyond the professional contracts. The organisation has become a vehicle for social change that tackles some of Zimbabwe's most entrenched problems—gender-based violence, disability exclusion, and the cycle of poverty that traps so many young people.
Kudakwashe "Terminator" Mapira captained the 2019 Zimbabwe Homeless World Cup team and made history as the first player with a physical disability to represent his country. He has since become a global sports ambassador for people with disabilities, using his platform to advocate for inclusion in street soccer tournaments around the world.
Rutendo Kuseka, a teacher and school administrator, represented Zimbabwe at the Africa Women's Cup in Tanzania. YASD gave her a new direction as a mentor to young women. She went on to complete a degree in Early Childhood Development and a Master's in Early Childhood Administration. "The road has been tough but I thank God for meeting up with YASD," she says. "They have really changed my life and the way I see life. Sometimes you have got no hope, you think what can I get out of this? But I've got a lot."
YASD, in partnership with the Homeless World Cup Foundation, ran a two-year programme called "Football to Protect Vulnerable Women from Exploitation," working alongside Kenya, Tanzania, and Zambia. They identify vulnerable women, engage them in safe football activities, and guide them towards productive alternatives.
A Dream That Keeps Growing
Since 2006, YASD has been Zimbabwe's official partner to the Homeless World Cup, sending teams to various Homeless World Cups and most recently Oslo (2025)—where the organisation fielded its first all-female team.
Petros Chatiza, YASD's director since its inception, sums it up best: after the Seoul 2024 Homeless World Cup triumph, he said the team returned home "with newfound pride, inspiration, and a renewed commitment to empowering marginalised youth through sports."
And now, YASD is even mulling the possibility of hosting the Homeless World Cup in Zimbabwe. If that happens, it would be a fitting homecoming—a chance to showcase the very communities that have produced these incredible journeys.
The names of the Zimbabwe Homeless World Cup teams may not yet be household names across Zimbabwe. But their stories are not about fame. They are about resilience, second chances, and the belief that a football can change a life.
And at the heart of every single one of these stories is a small non-profit in Harare that never stopped believing that talent is universal—even when opportunity is not.
That is the real victory. That is the legacy YASD is building, one kick, one save, one life at a time.
| One kick, one save, one life at a time. Photo: Angelica Ibarra Rodriguez
Zimbabwe is represented by Young Achievement Sports for Development (YASD) in the Homeless World Cup network.
It was formed in January 2005. They are a non-profit, community-based organisation that uses football to educate and empower people in communities in the Greater Harare metropolitan area and Mashonaland East Province.