A make or break for Chipolopolo

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FRIDAY, JANUARY 28, 2022*

I’ve a feeling that the new Zambia national team coach, Aljosa Asanovic, will read this column, so let me write as if I were addressing him or speaking with him.

Asanovic, I feel that way not only because this newspaper is Zambia’s gold standard of news and reaches the country’s corners that matter, but also because whoever sees this write-up will be under compelling obligation to bring it to your attention.

As a Zambian in the United States, I learnt of your appointment with glee, increasingly so because of the panache with which you spoke as you were officially unveiled.

“It’s not an excuse,” you said to the press corps, “we’re going [qualifying] for the next [AfCON].”

That made me wanna holler! It was good optics, at least for me, but I can tell you that many soccer fans in Zambia weren’t impressed.

They’re asking, if Sven Vandenbroeck and Milutin “Micho” Sredojevic couldn’t do it, who do you think you’re?

Of course, I know why: we’ve seen the Chipolopolo descend headlong from their summit as one-time reigning African champions.

We’re not some chest-thumping nation but I remember that the Chipolopolo Boys we once knew were a talented side with matching ego, who hardly had any rival in Southern or East Africa.

We expected losses, with much trepidation, when we played against West African or North African sides, who boasted of English Premier League exports.

But today it’s like we lose to any team, so long as if it has 11 players—Zimbabwe, Botswana, name it.

So we want to think of you as the CEO with the Midas touch, the man with the magic wand, who will restore dignity back to the Zambian national team.

I know that you’ve served the team as technical advisor under the former coach Beston Chambeshi for about four months, but you haven’t hitherto seized the spotlight as man of the moment. So we cannot blame you for past failures, just like we cannot blame a vice-president for his principal’s dismal performance. The two may be a team, but the buck eventually ends at the president.

Chambeshi himself has admitted that you’ve a philosophy different from his, and that’s a good sign enough, so implement it. What we want to see are good results.

I want to think of your appointment as a make-or-break moment for Chipolopolo, because that’s what it truly is.

As you know, there is already some bad blood simmering against expatriate coaches in this country because of how they’ve recently let us down, so you’ve a job to redeem your ilk.

I heard Honour Janza the other day saying Chipolopolo Boys don’t need a foreign coach, as if he isn’t a Dutch-trained FIFA instructor himself.

I personally don’t mind your being expatriate because national boundaries mean nothing to me. It’s baloney to a pilgrim like me who has stayed and worked in different countries. What matters to me is that you can deliver the results better than even the most quintessentially local coach.

But remember that you’re starting from a point of strength and I’m sure you know it.

Arguably the greatest Zambian coach before Herve Renard, Ante Buselic, came from your country, Croatia.

I used to have a copy of The Zambian Soccer Scene written by the great dribbler-turned-sportswriter Ridgeway Liwena, which documents the exploits of Buselic on the pitch.

You can read it in your own time and learn from Buselic not only to be pragmatic, but to anthropologically understand your players as if you were Zambian.

It was because of Buselic’s down-to-earth approach that for the first time Zambia reached the AfCON finals in 1974.

It was a dream that began in 1971, but he steadily worked at it despite the frustrations.

I say frustrations because the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) couldn’t cooperate with him on starting a coaching school.

Later honoured as a FAZ life member, Buselic then was not deterred by the challenges of the time.

He made the most of the raw talent he found in the country to forge Zambia into a respected football brand.

So don’t be like Micho who wished he had more time to perform wonders.

We all know that in football, just like a game’s 90 minutes, not even four years is enough. Be like Buselic who excelled against all odds.

You’ve a four-year deal to prove all your naysayers wrong.

If you feel a little unworthy, that’s just imposter syndrome. With your first victory, it shall dissipate.

And like I said, I know you’ll read this column. Please write back to me. 

*This column is published every Friday in Zambia's best-selling newspaper, Zambia Daily Mail