Friday, March 29, 2024

15 years later, Igesund’s long wait for Zambia job ends

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An interesting fact is that Gordon Igesund finally gets the Zambia job 15 years after he was first linked to the post.

The South African is set to be appointed Zambia coach in what will be his first foreign stint after a decorated career at club level in his homeland.

Igesund was first linked to the Zambia job in 2001.

The ex-Bafana-Bafana coach was courted for the job as gap-coach to oversee Zambia’s 2002 Africa Cup outing in Mali following CAF’s suspension of Dutchman Jan Brouwer.

Browuer was suspended by CAF after pushing a match official in Zambia’s 1-0 away win over Madagascar that earned Chipolopolo a dramatic last day passage to Mali after earlier losing 2-1 at home to their Indian Ocean rivals.

The interim position, though, went to Roald Poulsen at the Mali tournament where Zambia exited with its now customary one point in the preliminary round.

Igesund has some insights into Zambian football with two club wins and two national team defeats.

He led Manning Rangers to a 4-0 aggregate win over Power Dynamos in the pre-group stage of the 1998 CAF Champions League whose highlight was a convincing 2-0 victory in Kitwe.

Manning Rangers went to to finish second in Group B behind eventual 1998 African champions ASEC in the old format that went a straight finals after the league phase.

With the national team, Igesund lost 1-0 at home to Zambia in the 2012 Mandela Challenge in Johannesburg.

A year later, Zambia beat Bafana 5-3 on penalties in the 2013 Cosafa Cup semifinals in Ndola after a 0-0 full-time result en route to Chipolopolo lifting the title at home.

23 COMMENTS

  1. We needed a high profile team manager, with reasonable track record. I am not seeing the “silver steak” in his profile.

  2. No No No not a good choice if this our choice. We need somebody with some knowledge of some modern football which this man definitely does not possess. The new FAZ should and must not take Zambian football backwards. Sometimes I wonder if we have fresh brains at FAZ or we just don’t think or reason at all.

  3. Hello people that’s what we can afford just hope he will move to zambia we don’t need a coach flying to and from South Africa. Am sure given him a chance he can do better.

  4. Lousy choice indeed! What has he got to offer Zambia that he could not to Bafana Bafana…malabishi ya Kamanga nachi Ponga atase!

  5. When we say Kamanga is useless, you bring in politics. How can you appoint such a coach? The chap has no club in the sub standard ABSA league and you appoint him national coach for the MIGHTY CHIPOLOLOPLO…We need a coach who has at least won the Africa Cup. This guys has no clue on what it takes to qualify to world cup or win Africa cup. We have a moron of SG at FAZ who had no job till he cried for his current appointment. We need people who understand soccer at FAZ not some businessman. Kamanga has issues to sort with his businesses. He is just wasting our time!

  6. Even if FAZ had appointed Guardiola, Ferguson, Wenger, Mourinho or Klopp, the Kalusha Bwalya blind followers would still have gone for Kamangas throat. Ngati chakubaba, yenda ukamwe doom. AK47 is here to stay

  7. Let’s wait and see, when we got Herve Reinar his profile was quite low apart from being assistant coach to some senior coach in Ghana. A lot of negatives were said but he ended up delivering where others failed. Coaching is a skill like any other and a coach maximizes on the available talent from the pool of players available in the Country and being prudent when it comes to selection of players. Other skills required include understanding your opponents very well by preparing for them adequately and summoning the right players to plot their down fall. Above all reading the game when the matches are being played so than necessary changes if required can be made there and then by employing the right formulas. At the end of the day you emerge winners. There must be that rapport and…

    • No experience of succesfully playing in the AFCON. Or qualifying a team to the world cup. No club at present

  8. Not that, some are not involved in politics but honestly speaking this choice is poor. The man did not even take South Africa to either quarter finals, semis or finals and yet you give him a job? What kind of choice is this? Forget about world cup!!! Forget it!!

  9. He took up a job with South Africa when the team was at its worst point and managed to take them to the quarter finals of the Afcon 2013. He is a good coach and the one Zambia needs at the moment. Good choice ba Faz.

  10. I have followed Gordons coaching career for awhile and in my opinion deserves a chance. At club level, he is far more capable than George Lwandamina. At national team level, he is going to have a more abundant talent base to choose from than he had in S/A. We have to here what he has to offer.

  11. This is no time for experiments in Zambian football. Do you think this would be the choice in Nigeria, Ghana or Egypt? Wake up guys! You are pushing your game backwards three times. We are looking at improving standard levels of football in Zambia. We can’t pick a coach who’s nation stint does not yield any reputable results. Its shear waste of resources and chance to go to world cup! Sometimes I wonder what criteria we use to higher someone. These guys are wasting resources, you went to Europe scouting for a coach, spent money in hotels even if you were invited by FIFA. You promised you are looking for a expatriate coach in Europe and yet your choice is from South Africa. What explanation do you have to the people why you have chosen a South African coach who did not qualify his team…

  12. Better than the chicken pushing wrong players down our throats ! If he is objective in picking and assessing players , he shall do better than the chicken

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