Midfielder Jonah Reinhard Fabisch, who stood out for Zimbabwe in his team’s 2-1 loss to giants Egypt on Monday in Group ‘B’ match of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) chose to play for the “The Warriors” over Kenya because he felt more attached to the southern African nation.
Jonah, 24, played the full 90 minutes of the Group “B” match staged at the 45,480-seater Adrar Stadium in Agadir City in Morocco. Grande Stade d’Agadir is located in Agadir, some 540 kilometres south of the capital Rabat, on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean near the foot of the Atlas Mountains.
Jonah is the son of the celebrated former Harambee Stars coach, the late Reinhard Fabisch from Germany. He was born in Nairobi on August 13, 2001, making him eligible to represent Kenya.
German coach Fabisch handled Kenya on three different occasions. He first handled Harambee Stars from June 1986 and left the role in March 1988, then returned to take charge of the team for a second spell from July 1997 to June 1998. His third stint with the team was from July 2000 to June 2002.
Jonah’s mother, Chawada Kachidza, is Zimbabwean, meaning that the central midfielder was also eligible to represent Zimbabwe, in addition to Kenya and Germany at the international level.
According to the World football governing body Fifa, a player who is eligible to represent more than one country because of nationality may play for only one association in international matches provided he or she holds the nationality and meets at least one of the following conditions: he or she must have been born in that country, must have had parents or grandparents born there, or must have lived in the country for a minimum of five years.
Midfielder Jonah Reinhard Fabisch.
Photo credit: Pool
Despite having honed his football skills in Germany and earned call-ups to Germany’s youth sides, Jonah always intended to represent Zimbabwe, citing his father’s rich legacy in the southern African nation.
“I feel like Zimbabwe is my second home, and it is for this reason that I would want to play for the country, even though I am also eligible for Germany,” Jonah, who lives in Germany with his mother, told Zimbabwe’s The Sunday Mail in January 2019.
“My father has a huge legacy here in Zimbabwe, and I feel like I need to do this (play for Zimbabwe) in his honour. I have been invited for the German national youth teams, but I haven’t yet made my decision on my senior national career. But I have got this strong attachment to Zimbabwe, it is my home country, so I can say 90 percent I will play for the Warriors,” he added.
Jonah spoke in Harare in that 2019 interview alongside his mother Kachidza, who is Zimbabwe’s former 100-metres hurdles national record holder. Fabisch married Kachidza in 2000.
“He courted me for a couple of years before he proposed in 2000, and Jonah was born the following year in Nairobi, Kenya,” Kachidza told the publication at the time, adding that when Zimbabwe Foreign Legions reached out to her to have the youngster play for Zimbabwe, they left the decision to him.
Zimbabwe Foreign Legion is an organisation that scouts diaspora players with Zimbabwe’s roots and recommends them to the country’s national teams.
Yesterday, former Harambee Stars coach Jacob “Ghost” Mulee recalled seeing an expectant Kachidza visit coach Fabish at the Harambee Stars training camp in Nairobi.
Former Harambee Stars coach, the late Reinhard Fabisch, at the 2006 Africa Cup of Nations finals in Ghana where he coached Benin. PHOTO/FILE
“They (coach Fabisch and Kachida) lived around Kilimani. The mother, who was expectant at the time, used to come to camp,” Mulee, who served as Fabisch’s assistant at the time, said yesterday.
In an interview with Zimbabwe’s The Saturday Herald in August 2011, Kachidza revealed Fabisch’s superstitious nature. She recalled that during Fabisch’s third stint as Harambee Stars coach, the German always carried to matches the blue and white romper that Jonah wore the day he was born in Kenya. Coach Fabisch would carry the romper in his briefcase.
“He thought that, too, brought him luck,” Kachidza told the publication then. Having led Zimbabwe for four years in the mid-1990s, Fabisch is remembered by Zimbabweans for presiding over a ‘Dream Team” side of “The Warriors” that went unbeaten in a record 12 matches in both Afcon and World Cup qualifiers.
Kachidza revealed that they bought land in Ruwa in Zimbabwe in the late 1990s, and they planned to settle in the southern Africa country once Fabisch retired from coaching.
Jonah currently plays for Germany’s third division side FC Erzgebirge Aue. He joined the club on a two-year contract in June 2024.
After honing his skills at the youth academy of Hamburger SV, having joined in 2012, the midfielder made his debut for the club’s reserve side in September 2020. He then joined Germany’s second division side FC Magdeburg before moving to Erzgebirge Aue.
