The Football Association of Zambia- FAZ has unveiled former Chelsea, Israel and Ghana Head Coach, Avram Grant ,as the New Chipolopolo Coach on a two-year contract.
The 67-year-old Israeli born coach, guided Ghana to the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations and led Chelsea to the Champions league finals in 2008 where they lost to Manchester United on post-match penalties.
And football analyst Reuben Kamanga says the new coach should hit the ground running and get to work immediately because there is no time for complacency.
Kamanga says the coach is expected to bring in consistency and philosophy especially that he was selected under a lot of scrutiny.
He added that he is very optimistic that the coach will take Chipolopolo boys somewhere and that there is a need to support the coach and FAZ.
“He comes with a lot of experience, because he has coached a lot of countries and clubs in Europe. It’s exciting for the National team and the country at large, there is also an opportunity for Zambia to qualify to the world cup now that the places have been increased.
Another football analyst, Franklyn Malambo says the expectations from the new coach are high especially that the team has not qualified for the Africa Cup of Nations for 9 years now.
He says the key question is about what the new coach is going to do differently that other coaches and FAZ have not done to make the team qualify to bigger tournaments like the World Cup.
Malambo added that the coach has to change the mentality of the team because football is more of a mental game.
He notes that Zambia has had defensive problems in previous engagements which contributed to the failure by the national team to qualify for the AFCON tournaments.
Malambo has further challenged the new coach to engage players that are of Zambian descent,but playing their trades in Europe.
Coach Grant takes over from AIjosa Asonovic who resigned in August this year.