Under-20 coach Oswald Mutapa Jr says Zambia will use the 2013 Cosafa Youth Championship to indentify players that can qualify the country for the next African Youth Championship.
The Junior Chipolopolo will be in Lesotho to defend the COSAFA Under-20 Championship that takes place from December 3-14.
Zambia is in Group C together with their arch-rivals South Africa, Namibia and Seychelles.
Mutapa said the Cosafa Under-20 Youth Championship was important to Zambia.
“We are looking for players that can help us qualify for the African Youth Championships and the qualifying for that starts next year, so this is an important tournament,” he said.
“If the players do well in Lesotho then they will have a good chance to be part of that group,” Mutapa told Cosafa.
“But it is also about exposing the players to international competitions and seeing how they respond.”
Zambia have won the last three Cosafa Under-20 championships staged in 2009, 2010 and 2011.
Go & show them how to play the game of football.Bullet ni bullet.
Poor planning and lack of vision here is the problem. Talent in Zambia is plentiful. Currently there’s no focus on youth football. I would like to see FAZ put in place fulltime coaches for all junior and women teams. That will bring in the dimension of FOCUS. Fulltime coaches r best suited to work on planned schedules that show the teams’ activity all year round; including our teams’ future and tentative participation in tournaments in all continents. Thus arming our upcoming stars with great exposure to varied interpretations of the game from around the world. We need a GLOBAL vision in place of this narrow regional (COSAFA) vision of our game. We can do COSAFA. Now plan CAF and FIFA logistically.
Zambia will soon be hosting a big junior tournament; what are we doing NOW?…