On my last day in Gabon before heading back home, I was lucky enough to meet up with an African football legend, Abdul Razak of Ghana, the 1978 African Footballer of the Year.

Razak won the Nations Cup with the Black Stars in 1978, he's now 60, and he was at the Nations Cup as a guest of the Confederation of African Football, having been one of the stars who participated in the ceremony for the draw before the tournament.

He has been to Zimbabwe - he played for Arab Contractors of Egypt in a continental club tie in 1983 against CAPS United in an African Cup Winners' Cup quarter-final.

Razak was following the Warriors' matches in Gabon and he told me enthusiastically that his view is that Zimbabwe did relatively well, drawing 2-2 with Algeria, losing 2-0 to Senegal and losing 4-2 to Tunisia.

“Zimbabwe had been away for 11 years, they were not one of the favourites, and they were short of experience, but I think they were not bad,” said Razak.

“They should have won against Algeria, surely. They got the chances and messed up but it's lack of experience. If they'd beaten Algeria they would have had maximum confidence for the next two games.

“Even scoring two goals against Tunisia was an achievement – they are more experienced.”

Razak played for many clubs, including the New York Cosmos, where he played alongside Pele, Franz Beckenbauer and Jomo Sono.

He is not coaching at the moment, but has coached in Ghana, Sudan and had a very successful spell with Stade Malien of Mali.

Razak believes that the Warriors will get better.

“The next time around, if you can keep these players for some time, maybe the next four years and qualify, then you'll learn your lessons and where it goes wrong you try to put it right.

One thing that Razak feels the Warriors are doing right is having locally-based players in the team.

“You shouldn't depend on foreign-based professionals too much, you need some good local players who can help to take Zimbabwean football to the next level.

It's good for the local league to have players from the league going to these tournaments.

Coming from a man who has seen it all in African football, Razak's words must be words of wisdom.