Chipolopolo coach Milutin ‘Micho’ Sredojevic says he will not play names when it comes to national team selection.
And Micho says some of the members of the 2017 under-20 Africa Cup winning side will be crucial in realizing the dream of qualifying to the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Meanwhile Micho has thanked local coaches for the support since his taking over the mantle on February 3.
Featuring on the Diamond TV Sports Café, Micho said that the technical bench needed to make courageous decisions on the status of some players that have a hangover from the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations success.

He said that some could still add value while others may have to be freed from the Chipolopolo set-up to ensure that the team remains competitive.

Micho said he will incorporate a perfect balance between the experience of 2012 and the youthful ambitions of the 2017 under-20 Africa Cup of Nations squads.

“There are certain places in the team where you need to have a balance, you cannot put all the young lads into the fire and then say I have risked. You need to have a perfect balance between the maturity and seniority of the senior players and young fresh blood of motivated players that they want to do something and achieve for their country. That balance is exactly the key and formula to open the doors to the bright future of Chipolopolo.

Micho said that some of the stars of the 2007 under-20 FIFA World Cup story progressed steadily enough to make up the 2012 story which could be similarly catalytic for the 2017 under-20 class in pursuing the 2022 Qatar FIFA World Cup dream.
“Some players with the highest degree of respect to them, they have given to Zambian football, they have been part of the most glorious times of winning 2012. However after certain things have happened, it could not be that we continue with the same people,” he said.
“I want to call it lack of ambition and we still want to achieve something. Those are the decisions we need to make and let us not sugar-coat, let us be sincere to ourselves and look at the fact that for the 2012 generation, which won it has been the backbone of that group which was qualifying for the World Cup under-20 in 2007.”

He added, “The same for us going into the World Cup 2022, the platform is the group which won the Africa Cup under-20 in 2017 and reached the quarterfinal of the World Cup.”
Micho said that he had already started on the radical path of transforming the Chipolopolo by having drafted only nine foreign based players in the squad that was due to play Botswana in back-to-back Africa Cup of Nations in March that was put off due to the Covid-19 crisis.

“Someone needs to have the courage and say the bold truth, we could not put all the players we are having outside in the team. Sympathies of the public are going towards those that made 2012 but let us also ask the question, who has failed Zambia in, 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2019? Someone needs to pay that price,” he said.

Micho said that Zambia had abundant talent that just needed to be nurtured in order to get back to the top.

“We have put on the table an extensive technical master plan that will see that in two years’ time Zambia going to the World Cup in Qatar 2022 also believing that through the CHAN that has seen us promoting so many young players that could be the backbone of the Chipolopolo in years to come. We will get back to the top,” he said.
“We are looking to revive our situation in the Africa Cup of Nations qualifying group for the Cameroon 2021.We had started very well doing the local selection from 131 players to 28 that were supposed to go to Uganda for the pre-CHAN tournament and the AFCON qualifiers.”
“However, it was not to be, as we just played one match against Malawi at home and in that match we played with the third and second stream of our players while the first set we had kept them to see them against Mali and Uganda at the pre-CHAN tournament.”

Micho said that he was tracking foreign based players like Patson Daka, Enock Mwepu, Fashion Sakala, Brian Mwila, Edward Chilufya, Emmanuel Banda among others as he tries to keep them engaged during the Covid-19 global crisis.
He light-heartedly said that Daka needed to be more selfish in front of goal to commercially boost his football brand.

Micho also said long-serving Chipolopolo goalie Kennedy Mweene deserved an honourable send-off from the game for his contribution over the years.
He waxed lyrical about the Mamelodi Sundowns shot-stopper whom he described as a legend.

“Kennedy Mweene is a footballing legend of Zambia because his saving of those penalties has brought so much joy in the Zambian people. He is needed to the game, he has served, he is there and if there is anything pertaining to him retiring it will be done honourably,” he said.
“I cannot allow to be the coach to have such a person who is such a legend and a personal friend, we have been sport opponents is done in such a way that it is done in a match before his own people, we pay back for pleasure and joy that he has brought to the game.”

Micho also said that his goalkeeper trainer Miroslav Stojnic will conduct a goalkeeper’s course for coaches in the Zambian league once the Covid-19 had subsided.
He also said that a nursery of prospective goalkeepers had been established with 10 candidates working with the technical bench regularly.

Micho also said that his taking up the Chipolopolo job was not motivated by financial rewards but by the promise of talent and passion that the Zambian game provided.
He also said the strategic plan by the technical bench during the Covid-19 threat

Micho took over the reins of the Chipolopolo job on February 3, 2020 and has not let even the Covid-19 threat from getting down to work.

Kelvin Trudeau Musako

Football Journalist | TotalEnergies AFCON 2021 Photographer | Media Officer - Kabwe Warriors FC | Graphic Designer | Videographer