Chipolopolo U15 coach Chisi Mbewe has stated that junior football development was the biggest winner despite the challenges his team faced at the just-ended Eight -Team Tournament in Croatia.
Zambia played only two out of their four schedule games due to tournament organizational problems and positive cases of Covid-19.
Chipolopolo U15 withdrew from their 3rd and 4th playoff match against Qatar on Sunday due to two positive cases after earlier seeing their opening Group B match against North Macedonia last Wednesday cancelled due to an organizational matter.
But Mbewe’s team later beat Bosnia and Herzegovina 2-1 and lost to Romania by the same margin in their other Group B matches.
“I would say it was a good outing although it had to be cancelled because the boys had been exposed to Covid,” Mbewe said.
“But it (the tournament) was a motivation factor. Again, to the young boys, all I can say is we really need to continue supporting these young boys because these are the future national team players.
“We did not win any awards but the most important thing is, when you are working with this age group, is the developmental aspect.
“We have seen so much skills from these young boys which we really need to work on and we will continue supporting them.
“These boys need to be natured; these boys need to be supported, so that when they grow up, they don’t depart from what we are teaching them.”
