Retired Elias Pelembe reflects on two-decade international career

The 42-year-old, who started in The Mambas’ 4-0 demolition at the hands of Nigeria in the Round of 16 at Fez Stadium on Monday, officially called time on his international career on Tuesday after 101 appearances and 16 goals for his country. 

This was Pelembe’s third AFCON, having first played at this level in 2010 in Angola and then again in the 2023 edition in Côte d’Ivoire last year, and he looks back with pride at his journey, only wishing that he could have played in more AFCON finals. 

"It was a good journey, but I hope I had played more AFCONs, but you know that's football. I had the opportunity of playing these three tournaments so it was a good journey and I enjoyed it," said Pelembe.

"So it was a very good experience, especially because we got this win and passed from the group stage to the knockout stage, in the Round of 16.

"Unfortunately it was a tough game and we lost, but we're going to keep fighting. We've learnt so many things here and we hope in the future we'll get much better."

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Mozambique registered their first-ever AFCON win when they beat Benin 3-2 in the group stage, and the former SuperSport United, Mamelodi Sundowns and Bidvest Wits winger thanked the millions of people back home for rallying behind the team.  

"They have been [great], they told us they believe in us and they're always telling us that they believe in us, they are always behind us and they've been supporting us with messages on social media," he added.

"So we just want to thank them and say, let's hope next time we will have good luck."