Chipolopolo coach Patrice Beaumelle has called for more investment in the development of football at the grass-root level.
Beaumelle said Zambia has abundant football talent that needs to be nurtured.
He was speaking to journalists after watching the 2014 Airtel Rising Stars National Football Championship final between Southern Province and Luapula Province played at Edwin Imboela Stadium in Lusaka on Tuesday day.
“First of all, I would like to thank you Airtel for supporting that programme with FAZ. It’s very important to give time and to have the opportunity to see the talent coming from different provinces,” Beaumelle said.
“We all need sponsors, without support and money I am not scared to say that we cannot go far,” he said.
Southern beat Luapula 3-1 to win the inter-provincial championship.
Beaumelle added: “We all know that in Zambia we have talent in every province. It’s good to identify talent but we have to produce and develop this talent.
“For example, we have a lot of copper in Zambia if you want the copper to shine we have to polish it so as coaches we have to work on the talent every day after identifying it.”
Truth be told, we have to sow first before we harvest. Government should borrow 50 million from world bank and invest in sports.
I agree why not?. Sports success makes a nation happy and production goes up. Just watch the German GDP this year!
More money must be pumped into sport. In the 1960’s and early 70’s school soccer was so well organized under Glen Peters (I hope I have got the name right…been long), such that from my former secondary school, ‘King George the Sixth” in Kabwe we produced so many stars like Richard Stevenson Chilupula, Gibby Zulu who played foe the National Team while in secondary scholl. Who can forget the likes of Peter Mhango, Felix Nkobaika, just to name a new. These boys were untouchable in the region. They one time hammered Malawi national team 7-1. Bring back those days through proper sports management.