Mehluli Sibanda, Senior Sports Reporter
DESPITE spirited efforts by Twimbos as Zimbabweans call themselves on microblogging and social networking service, Twitter, Warriors skipper Knowledge Musona’s free kick against Algeria in an Africa Cup of Nations encounter at the National Sports Stadium on Monday lost out to Algerian Riyad Mahrez’s goal in a Twitter poll conducted by the Confederation of African Football.
Zimbabweans launched a massive campaign to garner votes for the Belgium based Musona’s well taken free kick but it proved to be in vain. Mahrez got 49.8% of the 51 561 votes cast while Musona received 44%. The other votes went to Andrew Ayew of Ghana and Ibrahim Amada of Madagascar.
Musona beat Algerian goalkeeper Raïs M’Bolhi in the 43rdminute with a well-executed set piece from outside the box. Mahrez had earlier on made it 2-0 for the Dessert Foxes with an exquisite solo effort, which saw him turn Zimbabwean left back Adam Chicksen inside out before he slammed the ball past Talbert Shumba in goals for Zimbabwe.
Twitter users decided Mahrez’s goal was better than that of Musona. Interesting enough, while Musona lost out to Mahrez in the Caf English, the Zimbabwean received 54.5% of the votes in the Caf Arabic Twitter handle against 37.5% of the votes for Mahrez. A total of 11 413 ballots were cast. All Zimbabweans were interested in was their flag and not the language as they voted for Musona’s goal on the Caf Arab Twitter handle.
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