Avram Grant becomes Chipolopolo Zambia’s eighth coach in six years following his unveiling on December 22 by the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ).
The job awaiting the Israeli, who has coached Ghana and famously, Chelsea, is very obvious, but the question is how long will he last on what is turning out to be African football’s poisoned chalice?
Grant, 67 becomes the fourth foreigner to take up the Zambia job in six years that Chipolopolo has also failed to qualify for the AFCON for an unprecedented three successive times.
Out of the four, Sven Vandenbroeck was appointed mid-stream but never finished an AFCON qualifier while Milutin Micho Sredojević also took up the job amid the qualifiers but failed to guide Zambia to the 2021 finals.
WILL GRANT SUCCEED AS ZAMBIA COACH?
Grant’s predecessor, the Croat Aljosa Asanovic, who barely lasted six months on the job, left after overseeing the opening of two 2023 AFCON Group H qualifiers last June.
Asanovic, who was hailed as a refreshing and promising appointment, picked up 3 points against Comoros after starting the race with a humbling 3-1 away defeat to Cote d’Ivoire.
Not even hoisting the regional COSAFA Cup later in July was enough to inspire Asanovic to stay on following a pay dispute with FAZ and he quit in September following Chipolopolo’s failure to qualify for the 2023 CHAN tournament in Algeria.
Grant is flying into turbulence and arrives after a lengthy stint in India at NorthEast United where he initially coached and later served as technical director.
He takes over a Chipolopolo side that has been in transition despite being laden with some British-based talents Patson Daka of Leicester City in England and Fashion Sakala of Scottish club Glasgow Rangers.
Grant also takes charge at a point when Chipolopolo begins life without their impact midfielder Enock Mwepu of English club Brighton & Hove Albion.
ZAMBIA IN A REBUILDING PHASE
The Chipolopolo captain retired in October at the age of 24 due to a congenital heart condition.
Finding the right man to fill that void or concorting the miracle formula will be interesting to witness.
Furthermore, time is not on Grant’s side.
Grant will jump straight into the deep end in March in the must-win Group H doubleheader against Lesotho in what will be his official debut match during the first FIFA window of 2023.
Despite Lesotho’s inactivity since the COSAFA Cup in July where they were unfortunate not to reach the quarterfinals, they are always motivated against big guns.
Lesotho demonstrated this when they held Cote d’Ivoire to a scoreless home draw last June and that is a cautionary note of what may just lie ahead in March’s back-to-back dates in Lusaka and away in Johannesburg since Maseru cannot host FIFA-sanctioned matches.
In addition, Grant has a charm offensive to mount.
Public opinion had his chief contender for the Zambia job Wedson Nyirenda as the favourite for the post that many believe now he left prematurely in 2018 and also sparked this current cycle of musical chairs in the Zambia dugout.
To a lot of Zambians, Nyirenda had unfinished business as Chipolopolo were slowly looking like a resuscitated side before he abruptly quit allegedly after a fall-out with FAZ.
As Grant pilots Chipolopolo into the hazy skies of 2023, all we can do now in the cabin is to fasten our seatbelts as we watch on this flight another episode of the fallen 2012 AFCON champions slogging their way out of football’s purgatory.
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