Who is Zambia’s best coach in the last 14 years?
- Friday, February 5, 2010, 12:20
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Dannish coach Roald Poulsen had a second stint as Zambia coach
by Dinamo,
After Zambia’s passage to the quarter finals at the 2010 AFCON in Angola for the first time in the last 14 years, there has been a lot of talk on the performance of Herve Renard and some pundits have argued that the French gaffer is the best coach Zambia has engaged in the last 14 years.
Is Renard truly the best coach???, I think the best and the most fair way to analyse this issue is to go through the memory lane and compare how coaches performed putting into consideration the resources which were availed to them.
Below Zamfoot Crew pundit Dinamo takes a closer look at the performance of the coaches who have been at the helm of the Chipolopolo from 1997 to date.
FRED MWILA: 1997
He successfully headed the technical bench that assembled a new national team after the Gabon disaster in 1993.
Fred Mwila was again viewed as the right candidate to take over from Danish coach Roald Poulsen who had resigned a year after wining bronze at the 1996 AFCON in South Africa.
Mwila Sr was the first Zambian player to play in England with Aston Villa. He also played in the U.S with Kaizer Motoung, the owner of Kaizer Chiefs
Mwila who had to choose between quitting his coaching stint in Botswana and national duty was this time tasked to qualify Zambia to the 1998 World Cup in France and the AFCON which was held in Burkina Faso.
Prior to his first game in charge against South Africa which ended in a barren draw at Independence Stadium, Mwila won a lot of fans’ hearts when he recalled Belgium based legend Charles Musonda, though the Mufurila born failed to feature in what could have been his last game for Zambia due to the injury which he sustained in training.
Mwila was dropped mid 1997 for failing to win a crucial World Cup qualifying encounter against Congo Democratic Republic (the match ended 3-3). Many pundits believed the match which was played at a neutral ground in Zimbabwe due to the Congo Civil War could have enhanced Zambia’s chances of qualifying to the 1998 World Cup. Mwila never had any preparatory matches or any reasonable training programmes to prepare his charges before crucial encounters. He worked within limited local resources during his tenure with an indecent salary.
GEORGE MUNGWA: 1997
He took over from Fred Mwila in 1997. Mungwa was picked from the now defunct Ndola based Lifebuoy FC where he produced the likes of Frazer Kamwandi and Emmanuel Zulu.
His Champaign football brand won us the inaugural 1997 COSAFA Cup and he also managed to keep the unbeaten record at home and qualified Zambia to the 1998 AFCON in Burkina Faso. His worst defeat was when Zambia lost 3-0 to South Africa to end the dream of making a maiden appearance at the 1998 World Cup in France.
During his tenure, Mungwa never had any high profile friendlies or any reasonable training programmes to prepare his charges before crucial encounters. During that time players arrived a day before or even on the actual day of the game (the case of Elijah Litana when we lost 3-0 to South Africa).Like other Zambian coaches, Mungwa used to get peanuts and the same was never paid to him regularly and FAZ owed him money in unpaid salaries and allowances when he was fired for failing to qualify to the World Cup. MHSRIP
BURKARD ZIESE: 1997-1998
He took over a team which Fred Mwila and George Mungwa had jointly qualified to the 1998 AFCON in Burkina Faso. Ziese’s physical coaching style faced rejection in the Zambian camp which was preparing for the Africa Cup.
In one of the friendly games against Nigeria, the controversial former Ghana coach played Kenneth Maliloli at centre-half and former Esperance striker did give a good account of himself.
The Germany coach made headlines when he dropped crowd favourite Johnson Bwalya from the 1998 AFCON bound squad for his refusal to take part in the physical training sessions. I remember Jones Mwewa and Douglas Chiwaya running away from the national team camp due to the physical training which the Germany gaffer had introduced. Ziese again surprisingly dropped Kalusha Bwalya from the squad and appointed defender Elijah Litana as team captain. This decision received maximum rejection from the fans who later managed to push for Kalusha’s late inclusion in the final squad though Ziese still refused to hand back the captain arm band to the Great Kalu. After Kalusha gave a man of the match performance in the AFCON opener against Morocco which ended in a 1-1 stalemate, Ziese u -turned with his earlier decision and handed back the captain arm band to the Zambian soccer icon.
To prepare for the Burkina Faso AFCON, Ziese had two international friendlies with the supper eagles of Nigeria. The first game was played at Independence stadium and the second one was surprisingly played at Kitwe’s Nkana Stadium under floodlights .The game at Nkana Stadium was almost abandoned due to poor lighting system. That was an embarrassment and I still cannot understand why people experimented on the Nkana Stadium floodlights ignoring Zambia’s best floodlights just across at Arthur Davies Stadium. Ziese‘s squad then set up a camping base in Gambia for the team to acclimatise to West African weather conditions before the AFCON but the camping ended up to be an holiday on the Gambian beaches with nasty stories coming out of the camp.
Ziese had a few months to learn Zambian football. He arrived barely two to three months before the AFCON and his only competitive matches in charge of the Chipolopolo boys were at the AFCON.
As an expatriate coach, Ziese had better conditions than the Zambian coaches who qualified the team he took to the AFCON.
Simukonda is one the three Zambian-born coach to have guided the chipolopolo to Cosafa success
FIGHTON SIMUKONDA: 1998
He had a short stint as caretaker coach after the departure of the Germany coach Burkard Ziese. Simukonda successfully guided the Elijah Litana captained Chipolopolo boys to their second COSAFA title in a row when they beat Zimbabwe thanks to a Rotson Kilambe late goal in a final played in Harare.
BEN BAMFUCHILE: 1998-2000
The 1994 AFCON silver medallist as assistant coach to the Briton Ian Porterfield was brought in to restore order in the Chipolopolo camp after a disappointing outing at the Burkina Faso AFCON.
‘Pabili’ who had just resigned as head coach at Power Dynamos to take up a national job assembled a mixed team of experienced and young players like Moses Sichone, Laughter Chilembi, Francis ‘Koje’ Kasonde, Manasseh Mwanza, Rotson Kilambe, Harry Milanzi from the under 23 side and the likes of Andrew Sinkala, Gift Kampamba, Bernard Makufi from the 1999 FIFA under 20 World Cup squad.Bamfuchile guided Zambia to the 2000 AFCON which was co-hosted by Ghana and Nigeria with a 100% wining record in the qualifiers and reached the finals of the 1999 COSAFA Cup.
To prepare for the AFCON, Zambia surprisingly set up base in Miami USA.I still cannot understand how that decision was arrived at. What football is played on the Miami beaches? .To make matters worse, there were no proper arrangements for that camping. We heard of players starving, sharing beds etc.
The late Bamfuchile almost led the under-23 to gold at the All Africa Games in South Africa
That was an embarrassment and the team ended up going to the AFCON without any reasonable preparations. Before the AFCON, an appearance fee which was allegedly paid to team captain Kalusha Bwalya also came up. The national team was going into the AFCON divided because players like Davies Phiri, Mwape Miti, Moses Sichone and Andrew Tembo demanded an explanation from FAZ over the alleged appearance fee.
Bamfuchile publicly complained on the issues that characterised his preparations for the AFCON and according to him, his squad was balanced enough to challenge for bigger things at that AFCON.Zambia was eliminated in the first round for the second time in a row with Bamfuchile paying the price for the elimination.
Just like other Zambian coaches Bamfuchile had to work within the available local resources to get the 100% wining record in the qualifiers, a record yet to broken by his successors. Bamfuchile was not given any training programmes to countries with better facilities or even high profile friendlies to prepare his squad but the former Nkana Red Devils defender managed to keep the unbeaten home ground record. MHSRIP
JUAN BROUWER: 2000-2001
After a poor outing at the 2000 AFCON.FAZ decided to bring in an expatriate coach in an effort to bring back the national team on truck.
Dutch coach Juan Browser was then engaged as the new national team coach. In Brouwer’s tenure, Zambia became an average side which could even struggle to compete in regional tournaments like COSAFA Cup.
In the 2002 World Cup and AFCON qualifiers, the Chipolopolo boys made very little impact and the Dutch coach had to wait until the last game against Madagascar to qualify to the AFCON which was hosted by Mali.
Brouwer was suspended by CAF after an incident with a referee in Madagascar and that automatically disqualified him to take Zambia to the AFCON.This was received has a blessing in disguise by many Chipolopolo fans who most of the times doubted the Dutch man’s competence and ability to restore Zambia’s lost glory.
As an expatriate, Brouwer had a reasonable pay though he can have a right to complain for being denied quality training programmes to prepare his charges adequately before crucial encounters.
ROALD POULSEN: 2002
The 1996 AFCON bronze medallist with the Kalusha Bwalya captained Chipolopolo boys was re- engaged as caretaker coach after Juan Brouwer’s suspension and tasked to guide Zambia at the 2002 AFCON in Mali.
Poulsen was this time expected to assemble a team within a short period and bring back Zambia a team that was a football Powerhouse in the 90s back to its glory days. No reasonable preparations were arranged for the team to prepare adequately and the Danish man failed to use his magic this time has he saw his team failing to go past the group stage for the third time in a row.
These were the days of the famous L-Sporto kit.
PATRICK PHIRI: 2002-2003
After his exploits at the national under 20 level were he guided the Andrew Sinkala led team to the first World Cup appearance in Zambia’s football history and his achievements at Nkana FC were he led the scarlet shirted Wusakile boys to their 10th and 11th league titles, Phiri was viewed as the right man to restore stability in the national team.
Phiri failed to qualify the copper bullets to AFCON in 2004
The soft spoken former Nkana FC and Red Arrows FC player who was coaching the senior national team for the first time had a bad stint at the helm of the Chipolopolo boys has he ended Zambia’s 13 years unbeaten home record and failed to qualify to the 2004 AFCON in Tunisia.
Zambia under Phiri even failed to challenge countries like Malawi in the regional COSAFA Cup. Phiri received very little support from FAZ during his tenure. He also never had any high profile friendlies or any quality training programmes to enable him transfer his magic to the Chipolopolo boys and he was later sacked after the humiliating 3-0 beating by Benin.
KALUSHA BWALYA: 2003-2006
Following Patrick Phiri’s under performance, Zambia’s most celebrated soccer icon Kalusha Bwalya took charge as national team technical director and head coach. Kalusha came with an idea to identify and groom new talent for the recovery of the national team.
Kalusha recognised Ben Bamfuchile’s potential and immediately appointed him his assistant coach. He then graduated the likes of Kalililo Kakonje, Billy Mwanza, Isaac Chansa, Songwe Chalwe, Christopher Katongo, Felix Katongo, Collins Mbesuma, Jacob Mulenga from Peter Kaumba’ s under 23 side and youngsters Clifford Mulenga and Rainford Kalaba to begin a new era of Zambian football.
Great Kalu had dual roles. One as coach and FAZ veep
Zambia began the 2006 Germany World Cup and the Egypt 2006 AFCON qualifiers looking a more determined side despite being a squad of inexperienced players. Kalusha who was later voted FAZ vice President, an issue that gave birth to the controversial duo roles debate qualified Zambia to the 2006 AFCON after Emmanuel Adebayor’s hat trick in a 4-1 win in Togo and El Hadji Diouf’s lone goal in the match against Senegal at Konkola stadium denied Zambia a place at the Germany world cup.
Kalusha’ s squad lost twice in the COSAFA Cup finals with what can be Great Kalu’ s most embarrassing moment in his football career coming when he missed a deciding penalty in a final against Angola after coming in as a substitute from the technical bench to assist his misfiring striking force.
The national team under Kalusha had a training camp in France to prepare for the 2006 AFCON in Egypt. Kalusha failed to take Zambia beyond the group stage at the AFCON and he later resigned as technical director after a poor outing in Egypt to end the duo roles debate. During Kalu’s tenure, we saw the national team camping in countries with better training facilities like South Africa before crucial games for the first time. Unlike other Zambian coaches, Kalu was regarded as an expatriate because of his coaching qualifications and he was getting $10 000.00 per month like other expatriates.
He is still owed money by the Ministry of Sports.
PATRICK PHIRI: 2006-2008
Following Kalusha Bwalya’s resignation as national team head coach, Patrick Phiri bounced back as Chipolopolo coach.
In his second spell, Phiri had a much successfull stint. He won the Cosafa and Cecafa Cups.
This time Phiri’s outing was much better than his first stint. He continued with the squad Kalusha had started building and won two regional tournaments, the COSAFA Cup and the CECAFA Cup in 2007.
Phiri also managed to qualify the team to the 2008 AFCON in Ghana after silencing South Africa 1-3 in Cape Town. Though Phiri never got a high pay like the Great Kalu, he had some organised training programmes in Spain before playing high profile friendlies with Tunisia and Morocco to prepare his team for the Ghana AFCON.
Zambia played some good football at the 2008 AFCON beginning with a 3-0 beating of Sudan and despite the humiliating 5-1 loss to eventual finalists Cameroon, Zambia still managed to get a draw from the tournament winners Egypt but that was not enough to take the Chipolopolo boys to the quarter finals. The Kalusha Bwalya led new FAZ executive decided not to renew Patrick Phiri’s contract and the former Nkana mentor was later appointed national under 23 coach.
FAZ boss Kalusha Bwalya brought a rookie coach Herve Renard after the recomendation of Claude LeRoy
HERVE RENARD: 2008-
After Zambia’ s failure to advance beyond the group stage at the two previous AFCON outings, the new FAZ executive decided to engage an expatriate coach hoping to bring back Zambia to its glory days.
Names like Germany legend Luka Mattheus, Nigerian Stephen Keshi and Zambian Belgium based former international Lucky Msiska were linked to take up the vacancy.
Little known Herve Renard who was then engaged has physical trainer by Ghana’s Black Stars under the tutelage of Claude Leroy was hand picked by FAZ and given a two years contract with an agreement to allow him engage an expatriate physical trainer of his choice.
Renard who is believed to be getting $16, 000 monthly salary was guaranteed to be bankrolled by Konkola Copper Mines, began his Chipolopolo job with two high profile friendlies the first one against Libya and the second one against Iran before the crucial World Cup/AFCON qualifying encounter against Togo which Zambia lost 1-0.
Zambia under Renard won Bronze at the inaugural CHAN tourney in Ivory Coast but the Frenchman has failed to make an impact in regional tourneys, the COSAFA Cup and the CECAFA Cup in his last two years in charge with the latest one being the embarrassing 3-1 defeat to Zimbabwe in the COSAFA final and the shocking CECAFA elimination at the hands of football nonentities Zanzibar.
In the 2010 World Cup/AFCON qualifiers, despite qualifying the Chipolopolo boys to the Angola AFCON, Renard had what could be one of the worst campaigns in the history of Zambian football. The Chipolopolo boys only managed to score two goals in six qualifying games with two defeats at home in a row. With such a poor record, many pundits lost confidence and doubted the Frenchman‘s ability to guide Zambia to a better performance at the Angola AFCON but alas, the Frenchman managed to achieve his target of taking Zambia to the second round for the first time in 14 years after toping the group which included Cameroon, Gabon and Tunisia on 4 points with 5 goals. The French gaffer celebrated this achievement and after blasting the Zambian media for being too critical, Renard has indicated that he will leave if he gets a proposal from a world cup bound African team.
In terms of support, Renard’s tenure has enjoyed a lot of goodwill from private companies like First Quantum Mining who took over the responsibility of paying the coach and the physical trainer and also donated vehicles for the technical bench, Zambia Breweries became the official sponsors of the national team and Toyota Zambia donated a bus for the team plus many other donations from various companies.
The Frenchman has made it clear that he will go if he receives an offer from a 'Top African' or World Cup bound African country
In preparation for crucial encounters, the team has had a number of quality training programmes in countries with better facilities like South Africa, Germany and France and they have also played high profile friendlies with countries like Iran, Libya, South Africa, Morocco, North and South Korea, Ghana (ignoring the circus that surrounded the game in London), Nigeria, Mozambique etc.
This is how our journey has been in the last 14 years. Having looked at the performance of the ten coaches to have drilled Zambia in the last 14 years, it can be concluded that:
- We have demanded for better results from the coaches and the players without putting in place proper arrangements for them to achieve our goals. In the last 14 years we expected to win the AFCON and qualify to the World Cup without adequate preparations. We paid local coaches peanuts and expected them to meet the same targets we gave to the highly paid expatriates. In short, we wanted to reap where we did not sow and the result was first round elimination in 14 years.
- Herve Renard has managed to take us where we have never been in the last 14 years not because that he is the special one, but simply because we have for once tried to prepare adequately for each encounter in the qualifiers and Renard had the freedom to try over 80 players because he had friendly games and training programmes to utilise. This has helped him to build a strong team which everyone is now proud of. George Mungwa, Fred Mwila, Ben Bamfuchile and other coaches in the last 14 years never had the support which Renard has enjoyed in the last 2 years. It can therefore be unfair to say that the Frenchman is the best in this period when other coaches depended on limited local resources with uncertainty on when the next pay was coming. Renard deserves the praise but Ben Bamfuchile, Kalusha Bwalya and Patrick Phiri’s contributions under the circumstances they operated and the achievements that they made also deserves recognition. The 2010 AFCON preps were just spot on, hence our appearance in the quarter finals for the first time in 14 years.
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in the 14 years i would go for renard,but if u back date as far as 94,poulsen and poterfiled would do for me. in the last 14 years all the coaches mentioned failed to achieve to what renard has achieved
Going by performance, Roald Polsen is the most succeeful coach in the last 14 yrs. Zambia were third in 1996 and minted bronze. The late Banfuchile (MHSRIP) also did quite well. The worst coaches in my opinion are Jan Brouwer. Iknow the contentious issue is on HR.I think HR is an average coach. He will definitely make a good coach with experience. I cant say he is a best coach just because he qualified us to QF of AFCON 2010.
There is nothin wori 2say renard is da best.hp dis story is nt meant 2pull him down.p.h.d
Its HR, He is also the most handsome coach.
Renard is the only one who has taken us out of group stages at the africa cup,kalu did very well because if you look at most of the players who have been at the last 2 afcons,it was he who brought them into the team..
By the way,correct me if am wrong but george mungwa replaced ben banfuchile as coach in 2000,brouwer then came in for mungwa later that same year….
Excellent piece, filled with jewels of information that paint a very clear and true picture, thank you Dinamo.
It is really difficult to say who the best coach has been. If you take into account the resources and support given to each of these coaches, during their tenure of coaching you will come to the conclusion that it is not been the same. Some of these coaches have worked under very difficult conditions and without much support. Salaries of Zambian coaches for example have always been very low and some of these coaches were not even on contract with FAZ. Never the less these Zambian coaches inspite of working for peanuts still managed to win some trophies
We can only choose who the best coach for the last 14 years is, only if they had worked under the same conditions i.e. salaries, resources available and the freedom of choice of players. It is for this reason that I find it difficult to choose who the best is. However with this said I think the Zambian coaches who have been paid laterally nothing deserve a part on the back and I were to make a choice I would go for the Zambian coaches
This is just my opinion
Cheers to all bloggers
if I were to make….
poulsen is a good coach period!
Its really difficult to choose the best…but i would go for HR despite the losses i think Zambia plays one of the best football ever more or less like watching Arsenal or Barcelona. I know football is about goals and winning matches with has made HR unpopular.
ahh that sounded dodgy, are you looking at the performance or looking at the man, kind of gay hahahahaha!!!!!
For me as well I have to give it to Paulsen. This is a good article but under Paulsen we saw a totally different playing style and it worked for the most part. My vote goes to Pualsen without doubt. HR is very average for me. I will support him whe he takes our boys on tours of duty but in all honesty, he is a very average coach.
You are a football genius dinamo. Putting into consideration the resources, freedom of player selection,condition of services and pre tournament preparations. patrick p is the best achiever, HR the best opportunist and kalu the best team builder. My opinion and weelee.!
correction our home unbeaten run ended in 1999 against angola
Yaba, as expected our very own mbesu has done it again. i have a suggestion, why not pay 50% less to players on the bench, that will save us alot of cash. besides this drinkaholic Mbesu and friends will be forced to play.
i rest my case!
Renard, is one of the worst, stubborn, and pompous coach Zambia has had.
Oops i almost rost it he is in the same league as Bukard Ziese stubborn wise very skilled in enterprenuership like Kalu. To me the was Polsen ewaletele chipolopolo.
Impressive article Ba Dinamo!! Making me relive the experiences..
HR Is a good scout for talent period. The achievements that we are enjoying to date can be attributed to GREAT KALU. This is the team that he made, apart from one or 2 inclusions, and secondly he is the President who has made sure that we prepared adequately with high profile friendly matches. Bravo!
I wish it were possible to choose the best but am afraid its not. Yes, even when you consider the working conditions. Remember HR had to do a lot of talking and once boycotted going with the team to SA to get what he wanted. Maybe some credit to FAZ and RB for work put in. At the end of the day almost all news is judging by performance and not working conitions. They are saying HR has achieved what others have FAILED to do in 14 years
I was rebuked yesterday for saying he is more of a talent scout, the reasoning was that is he is a good scout he is a damn good coach, ala kwena my mouth is still open logic bamo abantu
Benny Bamfuchile is the best coach this continent has produced offcouse with Shehata as super best in the last 14 years.MHSRIP
Ben Bamfuchile took the team in difficult times to the AFCON without losing a single match in the qualifiers.In 2006 he actually did much of the coaching with Kalu and Zambia qualified just in the mid of the qualifiers.Renard has benefited much from Government material support of the team and he took over a team which was always fast improving.To me HR is the coach who has learnt and benefited much from Zambia than any other coach in last 14 years.
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Mr. or are you Miss what handsome are you talking about? HR BEING HANDSOME MY FOOT!!!, Talk about other things, to me Poulsen is the most successful of them all.
People, if i may ask you? Who is the best two coaches in the PREMIERSHIP? if your answers are FEGIE and Wenger, then the Best coach is HR, because you’re not looking at the work conditions they enjoy at their respective clubs and from what I’ve seen, if you are a bad coach you can stil fail even with GOOD WORK CONDITIONS e.g filipe scorali at CHELSEA he failed even with the best player in world and he droped Drogba to the bench.
Nice piece!!! ba Dinamo……
@SHOOTTER
Martin Oneil of Villa is the best, then Paul Moise of Everton!!!
But really you can’t argue that Fergie isn’t the best…
I think it is too dificult to say becoz of the various factors as outlined by our brother dinamo is that still a washing poweder in zambia?? Anyways I feel that herve renard has done well but when u look at how much money he has been given and preperations etc it is no surprise. we have always had playas but what is didfferent is the adeuqte preps. also i think to be honest hr got a bit lucky this afcon as 4 points took us thru. this is waht patricke phirimanaged against egypt and cameron two years previous… is it not mwana?
Herve Renard is the best.
pipo were sayin da preparations were nt gd.now u ve uturn.renard is da best coach wt or wtout moni
pipo were sayin da preparations were nt gd.now u ve uturn.renard is da best coach wt or wtout moni.
renard gav chance 2yung players whom most of us had no faith in them bt he believed in them.
In all fairness if all resources made available to HR were given to Bamfuchile, we all know what great things the man would have achieved.
Ha! You who are saying HR is a gud scout 80 players tried, of whom it can count 10 strikes used in AFCON qualifers and only 2 goals scored. Daa some eye for talent..! Put me as coach skill yanga naya HR vipayana…
In all fairness if all resources made available to HR were given to Bamfuchile, we all know what great things the man would have achieved.
Ha! You who are saying HR is a gud scout 80 players tried, of whom it can count 10 strikers used in AFCON qualifers and only 2 goals scored. Daa some eye for talent..! Put me as coach skill yanga naya HR vipayana…
I cant tell whch coach was the best coz they are all different coaches in their different “civilisation.” Bt if u asked me who the worst coach is,i will tell you it Renard and the worstlily its Ziese.Renard is the worst coach coz hes in the morden world where everythng he need for training is önly a mile away.
Renard has all the necessary facilities for training how far did he go at afcon, quarter final n u guys celebrated like u never celebrate again whn others in 94 with poor training facilities managed to lose to Nigeria 2-1 with a two mönths bby player team against the Rashid yakin,amokache etc.
And u say Renard is the best,am deeply dissappointed in zambians way of voting.
cris’s team just won 2-1 cris wasn’t even on the bench i wonder why any news on cris?
I’m sorry Dinamo, but this is a very disingenuous article that continues the anti-HR campaign. You talk about resources, preparations, money, etc. but leave out the most important element in football: the quality of the team. My friend, you can take Nakambala Leopards to Brazil for training, camp them in Germany for a year but they would still not win the African champions league. Bafana Bafana of South Africa have been training for a very long time for the World Cup and have played high profile games, but they are still struggling. Why is this? BECAUSE THEY DON’T HAVE QUALITY PLAYERS OF THE CALIBER OF SHOES, MARK FISH, KUMALO and all the other stars of yesteryear. Zambia has the same problem and yet Renard has still produced the goods. Zambia has topped a Nations Cup group for the first time since when? and you dismiss him as a talent scout. Perhaps he’s a very talented talent scout. Why are you denying the man his dues? You only come out looking very unintelligent I can tell you. Give him his credit and move on. I hope that you are as successful as him in your personal life.
kalu is the best despite the anti kalus, saying so because 80% of players werw brought him when he was then our nation team coach and its the same players hr used at Angola AFCON.
Patrick phiri had 4 points at Afcon,with 5 goals in 3 games! HR had 4 points at Afcon with 5 goals in 4 games! Taking numbers i think P P had better results & HR had better luck period.
point man.
@Justice Kafusha
ba Justice you can wriet
@Asilikale
Well you also have to consider that Zambia conceded 6 goals. You also have to note that the team did what they needed to do in making it to the qtr finals. Its not about luck it is about doing what is necessary to get to the next level. Though I do understand the mathematical conotations of your statement.
In looking at the results and the blog here. I have to say Zambias best was Poulsen
Patrick phiri is the luckiest coach zambia has had he humiliated zambia at afcon the guy sat on the bench n did nothing so wat if he got 4points did we go through wat did he achieve but embarass chipolopolo 5-1 n pipo r proud of that rubbish renard had 4 points wat did he achieve a last 16 berth or these coaches that came to zambia like poulsen n portafield were lucky because zambia had talented players who knew hw to deliver when it mattered great kalu,bubble n one man commando to name a few zambia played the best football george mungwa my name is maica 3
This article smells anti-HR sentiments.
While all dis has bn happening wit zed futbol,the futbol landscape in Africa has bn changing.
Dinamo fails 2 factor in this dimension.Other countries have hired better coaches in the last 14yrs,have paid better incentives,have discovered better talent nd nurtured it,have developed better infrastrature nd even wear better kit.
Bloggers usually 4get dat in futbol,ur as gud as yo last game.Whats important is our last performance.
HR did well.He is the best.
nice article, though not balanced. When responding, lets look at ‘attributes of a good coach’. Is it number of wins? Is it goals scored? Is it working inviroment? Is it his salary? Is it results?
In England, Fergi, Venger, Martin and Moyes. At Chel$ea, one gay took over from Mour and went as far as finals, is he better than Mouri?
Also club coaching and national are different. Renard’s success is atributable FAZ leadership, otherwise Ben did well under very difficult condition.
Technically RH is the best
Polsen is the man, best coach in the last 14yrs.
Paulsen will always be my favourite in terms of how mixed in the talent at the national team level. Guys like Mwape Miti, Vincent Mutale, even Dennis Lota those guys flourished under Paulsen. The other thing I remember is how people were so negative about Paulsen, and then he sat in front of Zambian journalists and the interview started very anti Paulsen, but I remember him winning over the crowd.. explaining how difficult it was to coach in Zambia also talking about how clubs were training with 25 players and 3 balls.
Paulsens record and the way the team played in ‘96 was amazing. We scored so many goals, who can forget brushing Egypt aside 3-1 in the qtr finals. Then I don’t know what happened with FAZ after the tournament, it should have been Paulsen leading the team in ‘98 it should have been him campaigning for the World Cup. We lost so much by letting him go.
Kalus admin and their intial failures have really been turned around. The common factor in all of Zambias coaches tenures has been lack of preperation since ‘96 it has been the song been sang. Now Kalu despite their initial misfortunes and failures have finally got it right. I had to swallow such a large slice of humble pie after seeing the preps that whent into this tournament.
HR has had the benefit of patience on the part of the admin, and such great financial and logistical support. If we can take some of the money we spend on going to SA to actually have world class facilities in Zambia it would even make us better. Lastly, wish we gave more respect to our local coaches… who give their all under such circumstances. It still hurts to see Fred Mwila in the headlines asking for people to assist him, when people he played along side own their own clubs. Sorry for being so long winded.
George Mungwa with chanpagne football, hey we played excellent football during his tenure. Poulsen is the best foreign coach and Mungwa or Phiri should follow in that manner.
@Romantic Monk
I ahve to agree on that one
Zambians lets learn to adjudge justly. I’m optimistic that Renard is the best Coach we have had in the last 14 years, simply because he does not play names but players who are able to perform well especially during training. Having once worked as a Physical trainer for Ghana, i feel it is a plus for coach Renard as he is able to easily assess any players fitness. We all saw how Mbola, Sunzu & Thomas Nyirenda performed, whom most Zambians had no confidence in, at the just ended AFCON, but credit goes to the Coach for believing in the trio.
We should also ensure that our Soccer fan number 1 (President Rupiah Banda) is re-elected as president in view of the personal stance he has taken in the administration and fund raising in respect
We need to keep Renard to groom a strong team for the next World Cup qualifiers and AFCON 2012 and, believe me , if we do do, the sky will be the limit for CHIPOLOPOLO.
Bravo Renard.
Whoever you are, just admit that Renhard and Kalusha are the latest idiots to bastardise Zambian football. It’s a pity that in Zambia we have imbecikles like Nkweto Tembwe who can’t differenciate between Kalusaha as a player and Kalusha as an administrator. Kalu has totally failed as an administrator. How can you celebrate reaching the quarter finals when we’ve been to the finals twice? Our Head of State is equally a joker. This he has shown by sending a ZAF plane to get the national team from Angola. What nonsense from this finished old man picked from his farm in Chipata by another lunatic.
Hey fools! How dare you blindly celebrate Kalusha and Renhard for achieving nothing. This football administration has received the most funding from government. And they have performed the worst under the tutilage of one Kalusha Bwalya. For those Ostriches who can’t face reality let them know that Kalu succeeded as a player, certainly not as an administrator. He has survived because he is in good books with another failure in State House, one Nyamasoya. The talent identification programme in Zambian football has totally collapsed. Kalusha has his own reporters whom we know. Our colleagues in the media profession have told us that Kalusha has bought off boys like Kelvin Kasama from ZNBC, Nkweto Tembwe an ex-DJ who calls himself a journalist. There is also Chapadongo Lungu and Brenda Katongola from the Daily Mail and Times of Zambia respectively. Let him penetrate The Post too.
You also have to take in to considerations the change in rules by CAF. If they would have gone for goals scored against, and did not discount the games played against the eliminated team (Tunisia in this case) as has been the case in previous AFCON editions, then Gabon and Cameroon would have gone through at the expense of Zambia.
Zamfooty take care of Patty Kasonde’s language. His postings do not fit civilized debate. Even if it’s hatred for Kalusha and Renard, why go to an extent of insulting the head of state, his predecessor and other people who support Kalu? If you you can not contain a civilized debate, please leave us in peace. It’s normal to disagree but not to start insulting others. It just shows how narrow minded and petty you are. Infact, ypur name should be petty and not patty.
we qaulified to the quarter finals with 4 points in 2008 we were knocked out with 4 points. i dont see the rason why renard shoule be praised.
Chali cool please remind me of the same so-called insults I have issued. i don’t rember insulting Rupiah banda, Kalusha and renard. I believe am one of the most civilised persons around.
If using words such as imbecikles, lunatic,idiots against people who don’t share your views can be a civil way of expressing yourself, then surely,you must be from Jupiter and not earth.
kalu attacks every were,what have u achieved your self.yo debate is so cheap
You are the fool. Its thanks to idiots like yourself that Zambian football remains stagnant. You’re a grown man for Christs sake, its really suprising that you have the time to sit down and write insults on the internet.
I guess it doesnt matter that Zambia qualified for the quater finals after 14 years, mind you, we are talking about a squad that had very little experince compared to its opponents, Tunisia, Cameroun and Nigeria. Two great individuals give yu something to celebrate, something you have not had in 14 years and you insult them? Look here mister, most of the young Zambians just had a faint memory of football victory. for some, they had not seen it at all.
Its really disappionting.
well, what can we say in every game theres always a winner. we just need to prepare now.
Wat a dangerous topic that can lead pipo to insulting each other of NOT PROPERLY POSTED BY U GUYS. dont put us at war. Bravo All coach’s watever period u tried & thumbs up to Rena, thaats my coach
How can Gabon who scored less goals and had the same goal difference as Zambia qualfied to the qtr finals even with Tunisia included:
Even under the FIFA rules of goal difference Zambia had 0, as did Cameroon (5 scored, 5 conceded) Gabon had 0 goal difference but 2 scored and 2 conceded. Because under FIFA next is goals scored, which Zambia scored more….this is including Tunisia in the equation. So how would Gabon have gone ahead of Zambia???
Gents this article was based on FACTS and I do not have anything against HR or anybody else I have talked about.When I say HR had lost 2 games at home and only managed to score 2 goals in the qualifiers thats a FACT which he made himself.When I say Ben Bamfuchile was never given and preparations for 2000 AFCON thats also a FACT.Its also a FACT that local coaches never get the Dollars which foreign coaches get.I do not think its fair to lable this is another anti HR or Kalu bra…bra…bra….I do not think I have time to discuss individuals but if a particular individual has something that concerns my beloved football then I will talk about him and even condem were neccesary.Thanks for the comments and Cheers
Poulse built the team after the death of the stars, and continued up to afcon 96.mwila reconstituted the team but bcoz of his corrupt triks lost credibility. Not kalusha, ziese, brouwer, patrick and HR. Simukonda tried with his gentleness but bcoz he is not corrupt, he fell out of favour with FAZ. The worst coach has been kalusha and HR
the worst fifa ranking came under HR, Zambia had never lost 3 competative macthes consectively, zimbabwe had never fired three goals behind zambian net in one single game,Zanzibar had never was not known, HR is the worst coarch. he has played 6 world/afcon games winning 1, 4 afcon games winning 1 . total number of competative games 10, won 2, percentage performance 20%. let him go before we see more record breaking results in the negative sense.