Zambia national team soccer team Herve Renard believes Tunisia based striker Fwayo ‘Galactico’ Tembo should start focusing on a regular berth in the senior Chipolopolo set up not in the under-20 national team.
The Frenchman who is currently assisting under-20 mentor Oswald Mutapa Jr in drilling the young guns ahead of this weekend’s Rwanda 2009 African Youth Championship against Egypt saw the exploits of the 19 year old in the first leg at first hand in Egypt eight days ago.
Having seen the likes of Clifford Mulenga, Sebastian Mwansa, Emmanuel Mayuka, Nyambe Mulenga, Stophira Sunzu and Rodger Kola in action for the senior national team, Renard is convinced, Fwayo has all the attributes to follow the foot steps of his collegues from the famed class of ’07.
“I told Fwayo to start focussing on a place in the national team. He is a very good player. The under-20 is not his level and I saw that he is a very talented and skillfull player.
“But he has to work hard. In his position, there are also good players like Clifford Mulenga, James Chamanga, Felix (Katongo), Rainford Kalaba,” Renard added.
Despite being a key member of last year’s Junior Chipolopolo Boys that reached the last 16 at the World Youth Cup, the highly rated striker cum winger has been ‘ignored’ in the last 11 months at all levels for selection with many pundits believing that maybe the exciting starlet’s move abroad came to early.
In Zambia, there’s a trend that most players who move abroad before establishing themselves on the local scene tend to be ‘forgotten and ignored’ by the FAZ technical committe which is responisble for player selection.
The Etoile du Sahel striker is currently enjoying top form at his club where is a regular.
Fwayo impressed Renard in the first leg against Egypt after scoring a brace in the 3-3 stalemate. He is expected to arrive in Zambia today from his base in time for the return leg at Chingola’s Nchanga Stadium.
mabbwana on Mon, 6th Oct 2008 1:31 PM
Fwayo (The Galactico) is back! This boy should be quite a talent. Seems the period he spent at home not playing competitive soccer after the U20 championships almost gave his footballing career a nose dive. Its good he is back on track and has already impressed the coach who matters the most for Zambian national teams.
Thats the plus of having Renard attached to the junior teams. Am sure we will have better progression of players from junior to senior level. Its good H R seems to be giving chance to players based on performance.
Nikolai from Monze on Mon, 6th Oct 2008 1:38 PM
Am not a gunners’ fan but an Arsene Wenger’s. Ths man owaz strives 2 bring the best out of his young players, this is the approach that H. Renard is taking. Its gud coz I kno these playaz wil b 2getha 4 a long time (frm the class 07). Big up Herve!!
Billy SA on Mon, 6th Oct 2008 2:09 PM
This is a beauty of having foreign coaches. They pick players on merit. They are not “bribed” by players to feature for the national team. They are not prone to nepotism as is the case with most local coaches.
Fwayo has been a good player and I wondered why he was ignored earlier. I like this coach HR. He seems to know what he is doing although I must admit that I was a strong critic of HR. But it seems we are heading in the right direction. For the first time in a long time, we seem to have a large pool of young players mushrooming from which we can choose future stars.
I have no reason to doubt that very soon we will have the likes of Makinka, Wizzzz, Kelvin Mutale and the like (MTSRIP). The future of Zambian football is still bright.
ek on Mon, 6th Oct 2008 2:11 PM
HR is a man who keeps his words he has said it many times only the best and those players he has seen in action will part of his dream team.he seen has fwayo now he wants to gve him the chance.how about this
………mweene……
himoonde…. hachipuka….tana
musonda….chansa…..sinkala…..chivuta
kalaba…….katongo……felix
on the subs.
collins
mayuka
fwayo
jacob
chamanga
chintu
kalililo
justin
Billy SA on Mon, 6th Oct 2008 2:15 PM
ek, from your squad although I have my own squad in mind, Hachipuka should be in midfield. Musonda should be among the defenders.
Big Steve from SA on Mon, 6th Oct 2008 2:15 PM
Nice to identify though I am not too sure of the coach saying he is above U20 level. What does this sort of statement do to a young boy when he goes into camp with the other under 20′s. Sometimes its us who drive this big headedness into our boys, we have got to be very carefull with these sort of statements. HR seems to place a lot of focus on the younger crop and grooming of the youngsters into the senior team. Thats a brilliant approach, just watch the statements, these are very young boys here. Next thing Mayuka will think, ah what about me, am I still U20 material or above?
[stretch.dj] on Mon, 6th Oct 2008 2:39 PM
Fwayo Tembo is definately one to watch for the future. Let’s not kid ourselves, Etoile du Sahel is a big, well-respected club on the African continent. I wouldn’t be surprised if Fwayo makes a jump to the European leagues in the near future. It’s encouraging that the lad [only 19!!] is making regular appearances for a a former African champion. HRs approach must definately applauded, he is indeed the right person to groom the class of ’07 into stars.
These are the leagues that our young Zambians should aspire to, not lyonse ku butukila ku PSL. Egypt and Tunisia are simply stepping stones across the Mediterranean to the glamour leagues in Europe.
Vincent Numbwa on Mon, 6th Oct 2008 3:12 PM
HR is indeed a good Human Resources guy where football personel is concerned. Identifying the talent to take us forwared is what we need most for now. I can`t help thinking how strong our team will be with all these young lads working together now for SA 2010.
Nikolai good to know you appreciate AV. Iam a Gunner I must admit the younster we have are really exciting though they need more stamina to compete with phisical teams like the blues.
Seen from afar on Mon, 6th Oct 2008 4:04 PM
Truth is, even if you are Amir Zaki scoring goals in the final of AFCON and winning the golden boot award, when you go abroad you are still expected to make a name for yourself all over again and prove your worth. Maybe then you become Theirry Henry when he left Arsenal. It’s taken Fwayo some time and it sounds like he is making progress in Tunisia. Good luck to him.
It’s unprecedented to have so many players abroad, No doubt a logistical nightmare for FAZ. FAZ and HR have done well to do what they have done with the pressure of qualifiers and so on, but still plenty of room for improvement like the Mayuka & Zulu visa problem recently. The article makes a good point about players being forgotten because they are not established on the local scene. Yah it’s got be tuff with so many players, but come on FAZ we are counting on you to keep tabs and keep operations smooth.
AS on Mon, 6th Oct 2008 4:49 PM
This is what we have always said on this forum. This coach needs to see more of our players who are away from Zambia. FAZ is not doing enough. Let him see at least all the players including Sinkala, or maybe that role is now ‘filled’ which I doubt.
AS on Mon, 6th Oct 2008 10:31 PM
Kaira, you remind me of the days of Zambia All Stars versus the Rest. What happaned to the that? Did it go down with the sponsorship of Rothmans of Pall Mall?
In todays’ case, we should call all the foreign players and local ones, make even three teams, and select two good teams from which the coaches can be pulling out for competitions.