Mavis Chirandu (born 15 January 1995) is a

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays for Weerams F.C. and the

Zimbabwe women's national football team The Zimbabwe women's national football team represents Zimbabwe in international football. It is controlled by the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZFA), the governing body for football in Zimbabwe. The team represented Zimbabwe at the 2016 Summe ...

Biography and career

As a

newborn In common terminology, a baby is the very young offspring of adult human beings, while infant (from the Latin word ''infans'', meaning 'baby' or 'child') is a formal or specialised synonym. The terms may also be used to refer to Juvenile (orga ...

, Chirandu was abandoned by her mother in some roadside bushes. She was brought up in an

SOS Children's Villages SOS Children's Villages is an independent, non-governmental, nonprofit international development organization headquartered in Innsbruck, Austria. The organization provides humanitarian and developmental assistance to families facing difficultie ...

orphanage An orphanage is a residential institution, total institution or group home, devoted to the care of orphans and children who, for various reasons, cannot be cared by their biological families. The parents may be deceased, absent, or abusi ...

Bindura Bindura is a city in the province of Mashonaland Central province, Zimbabwe. It is located in the Mazowe Valley about 88 km north-east of Harare. According to the 1982 Population Census, the city had a population of 18,243. This rose to 21, ...

. She played for the senior

team for the first time in 2013, against

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

. She acquired the nickname "Madam Chair" after Zimbabwe's women's football chairman Mavis Gumbo, and scored her first international goal in a 6–1 win over

Lesotho Lesotho, formally the Kingdom of Lesotho and formerly known as Basutoland, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Entirely surrounded by South Africa, it is the largest of only three sovereign enclave and exclave, enclaves in the world, t ...

in November 2013. At 21 years old, left-sided midfielder Chirandu was included in the national squad for the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

. She scored Zimbabwe's late consolation goal in their 3–1 group stage defeat by

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Arena Corinthians Arena Corinthians, also known as the Neo Química Arena for sponsorship reasons, is a sports stadium located in São Paulo, Brazil. It is owned, operated, and used by the team Corinthians. It has a seating capacity of , making it the fifth-l ...

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References

External links

* 1995 births Living people Zimbabwean women's footballers 21st-century Zimbabwean sportswomen Zimbabwe women's international footballers Footballers at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers for Zimbabwe Women's association football midfielders {{Zimbabwe-women-footy-bio-stub