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Mozambique: President calls for high-performance centres to tackle sports infrastructure ‘Achilles heel’
6:16 CAT | 06 Oct 2025
Photo: Presidency
The Mozambican president believes one of the “Achilles’ heels” in national sports is the lack of infrastructure and reiterated the need to build a high-performance centre to train quality athletes.
“We will continue working, because one of the biggest Achilles’ heels in Mozambican sports is, without a shadow of a doubt, infrastructure, among so many other challenges,” declared Daniel Chapo during the National Sports Gala in Maputo on Friday.
The president, speaking during an award ceremony for the best national athletes, including former athlete Maria de Lurdes Mutola, the 800-metre record holder, stated that it is impossible to achieve competitiveness without human, athletic, financial and material resources, “so that people can demonstrate their potential and the quality they possess.”
“We cannot continue to demand that a Chiquinho Conde [coach of the national football team] lead our team to a world championship or win an African championship without quality infrastructure. We cannot continue to demand that a Nazir Salé [coach of the basketball team] lead our basketball team to an African medal or win a world championship without having a youth academy, without having national championships for beginners, youth, juniors and even seniors,” the President of Mozambique noted.
For the Head of State, these professionals and many others in national sports are trying to do everything they can to make “omelettes without eggs,” as their sports careers have not been easy, with the persistence of “major challenges” that include the lack of modern and accessible infrastructure in all the country’s provinces and insufficient and unsustainable funding.
In his statements, Chapo also included training conditions that do not match the potential of athletes and coaches, the urgent need to professionalise sports management, the still fragile integration of school sports, and the lack of appreciation for women’s and inclusive sports as part of the problem.
“But it’s not the challenges that define us, it’s how we respond to them with courage, determination and innovation,” stated the Mozambican leader.
Chapo also noted that sports have proven to have the power to “unite hearts,” cross borders and “eternalise” the nation in the universal Olympic “spirit,” citing victories such as that of Lurdes Mutola, who won the 800-metre Olympic title at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, becoming the first Mozambican to achieve this feat. He noted that they represent “one of the strongest symbols of national unity.”
“We have always talked about the need to build a high-performance centre in Mozambique, because without a high-performance centre, we will never have more Lurdes Mutola, and we will never have the quality athletes we would like to have,” the Mozambican President stated.
The Mozambican Head of State also thanked athletes of all sports, stating that each achievement is more than a medal: “It is proof that Mozambique knows how to resist, win and assert itself in the concert of nations.”
“There were times when, through sport, we courageously affirmed our commitment to the fight against apartheid and for the freedom of our fellow brothers and sisters, in our SADC [Southern African Development Community] region and in humanity. In difficult times of conflict, sport was a space of hope and encounter among the Mozambican people, where we believed in a future of peace,” concluded Daniel Chapo.
Source: Lusa
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