Kamanga Hopes Stars Will Replicate Club Form in 2023 AFCON Qualifiers

FAZ president Andrew Kamanga has told foreign based Chipolopolo stars to replicate their good performances abroad when they feature for Zambia.

Chipolopolo is preparing for the June back-to-back 2023 Africa Cup qualifiers.

Zambia will face Ivory Coast on June 3 in their opening AFCON qualifier away in West Africa before hosting Comoros on 7 June at National Heroes Stadium in Lusaka.

Writing in his weekly column dubbed president’s corner, Kamanga said FAZ expects that foreign based players will join camp early to fully utilize the time that is remaining for preparations.

Kamanga said the association is doing everything to ensure that preparations are on course for the Africa Cup qualifiers.

The Chipolopolo squad is this Wednesday expected to leave for Ghana to prepare for the Ivory Coast match.

“We have been doing everything to ensure that preparations are on course. The local players have clocked a week in camp with the foreign based players expected to join starting from today onwards. With the team leaving for Ghana for an international camp to help acclimatize to conditions in West Africa on Wednesday, we expect that preparations will go a gear up,” Kamanga wrote.

“Most foreign leagues have come to a close, freeing up some foreign based players for national duty. We expect that our players will join camp early to fully utilize the time that is remaining for preparations. It is worth noting that we have seen some great performances from foreign leagues that we hope to see replicated on national duty,” he stated.

Kamanga hailed the Ministry of Home Affairs’ decision to clear Scotland based defender Frankie Musonda to feature for Zambia.

“We have made some steps on the naturalization process of two players identified from the diaspora namely Frankie Musonda (Scotland) and Aime Mabika (USA). The government has Okayed Musonda’s documentation which is a huge step for us but still scrutinizing the Mabika case.”

“Understandably, these circumstances are dealt with on a case-by-case basis and hopefully Mabika can be given the green light to feature for the Chipolopolo. Other countries have utilized this window opened by FIFA to identify outstanding talents that have some roots in some countries to feature for them,” Kamanga added.