What Zambia’s past three foreign coaches have achieved with Chipolopolo

Zambia recently said goodbye to its third foreign coach in four years following Croatian Aljosa Asanovic’s resignation a fortnight ago, FARPost analyses the trio’s misses and hits.

But first, a little bit of background on this flurry of European appointments.

Zambia has been desperate to end a seven-year failure to qualify for the AFCON since making its last appearance in 2015 under local Honour Janza. He was recently appointed Taifa Stars Tanzania coach.

Current FAZ president Andrew Kamanga took office after beating Kalusha Bwalya in the 2016 congress elections.

But Kamanga came into power on the final stretch of Chipolopolo’s fading hopes of 2017 AFCON qualification as the change of guard at the top was completed.

But since inheriting that first qualification failure, Kamanga has failed to end that run as Chipolopolo tumbled in the 2019 and 2021 qualifiers.

SIX COACHES

 To date, under Kamanga’s reign, FAZ has hired six coaches, half of them Zambians.

His first appointment was Zambian Wedson Nyirenda, who was in charge for two years but only oversaw the opening 2019 AFCON Group K qualifier against Mozambique that Zambia lost 1-0  at home in June 2017.

It was punctuated by an unsuccessful FIFA World Cup qualifying race and successful CHAN qualifiers, plus a 2017 COSAFA Cup final loss to Zimbabwe.

At the 2018 CHAN in Morocco, Nyirenda made a quarterfinal exit. 

The first European appointment was made in August 2018 with the arrival of Sven Vandenbroeck of Belgium shortly after Nyirenda had quit and moved to South African PSL club Baroka.

Vandenbroeck came with a gold star on his CV as Hugo Bross’ assistant coach with the Cameroon team that had just won the 2017 AFCON.

GOLDEN STAR

The Belgian appointment had some emotional nostalgia attachment to it.

Ten years earlier, a relatively unknown Herve Renard arrived in Zambia from Ghana, where he was a physical trainer under Claude Le Roy.

FAZ hoped lightning would strike twice for another European coach fresh to African football and hungry for a new challenge.

Vandenbroeck started on a promising note drawing 1-1 away to Namibia in September 2018, then beat Guinea Bissau 2-1 at home but lost by the same margin in Bissau.

Ominously, Vandenbroeck lost 1-0 away to Mozambique in November 2018 as he failed to exorcise that ghost left by Nyirenda.

That penultimate group qualifier game sealed his Zambia fate in which Vandenbroeck was in charge for five games that included a 1-0 away friendly win over Gabon.

There was not to be a new Renard, and Vandenbroeck was sidelined as he saw out his brief contract.

FAZ TURN TO LOCAL COACH

Local coach Aggrey Chiyangi came in to complete the dead-rubber against Namibia in March 2019 that Zambia won by a now irrelevant 4-1 margin at home.

Chiyangi then oversaw Zambia’s opening two 2021 AFCON qualifiers in November that year.

Chipolopolo lost a humbling 5-0 away to soon-to-be AFCON champions Algeria away and lost 2-1 at home to Zimbabwe.

It was not what was expected from Chiyangi, who earlier on won the 2019 COSAFA Cup after beating Botswana 1-0 in Durban in July and also oversaw a successful 2020 CHAN qualification.

By February 2020, Serbian Milutin ‘Micho’ Sredojevic had replaced Chiyangi and was handed the luxury of just taking Chipolopolo to CHAN.

But Micho had a salvage job ahead in the 2021 AFCON qualifiers in the remaining four Group H qualifiers.

Micho started his reign with six friendlies during the COVID era in 2020, winning a promising five games and losing one.

GOOD MICHO START

Then came the competitive side later on November 12, 2020, which started with a Group H doubleheader against Botswana with a 2-1 home win but lost 1-0 four days later away in Francistown.

Micho then headed to CHAN in January 2021, where Chipolopolo won one and drew two of their Group D matches to stumble into the quarterfinals, where they were outplayed 3-0 by eventual champions Morocco.

Again these results came on the back of another false dawn in five pre-CHAN friendly’s in Cameroon that Chipolopolo drew 3-3 with Niger, lost 2-0 to Uganda, then beat CHAN hosts Cameroon 2-0 and drew 1-1 with Libya.

It was back to the 2021 Group H qualifiers in March, where a 3-3 home draw against Algeria ended Zambia’s hopes with a match to spare.

Micho finished the qualifiers with a 2-0 away win against Zimbabwe, who had already qualified with a match to spare that week to join Algeria at the AFCON.

The Serbians’ last act came in July at the 2021 COSAFA Cup in Port Elizabeth.

Chipolopolo lost 2-1 to Lesotho, then Eswatini beat Zambia 2-1, but they rebounded with a win over Botswana by the same margin.

A 0-0 draw against South Africa was not enough to see them out of Group A, and Chipolopolo bowed out of the COSAFA Cup in what was to be Micho’s final match.

Micho was a man blessed with an abundance of friendlies during his 16-month reign, and just before the COSAFA Cup in June, he lost 3-1 away to Senegal and drew 2-2 with Benin in Cotonou.

Zambia then had two stop-over dates in Khartoum, losing 3-2 to Sudan and later beating their hosts 2-0. 

THEN STEPPED IN ASANOVIC

The third coach Asanovic who arrived in January 2022, was in charge of 10 official matches.

Asanovic oversaw Chipolopolo’s opening two 2023 AFCON Group F qualifiers in June, losing the opening game 3-1 away to Cote d’Ivoire.

Chipolopolo later beat Comoros 2-1 at home in a match Asanovic’s men rallied from one-zero down at halftime to secure a dramatic late win.

The Croat later guided Chipolopolo to the 2022 COSAFA Cup final triumph in July with a 1-0 win over Namibia in Durban.

But a week after that COSAFA Cup victory, Asanovic failed to guide Chipolopolo to a fourth successive CHAN appearance when Mozambique knocked Chipolopolo out of the race.

Zambia drew 0-0 away in Maputo and then suffered an embarrassing 1-0 final leg home loss in Lusaka in what would be Asanovic’s last game on July 30.

On the friendly front, Asanovic lost 3-1 away in Baghdad to Iraq on his debut on March 9.

Later that month, Asanovic took Chipolopolo to Antalya, Turkey, where they beat Congo-Brazzaville 3-1 and lost 2-1 to Benin.

And now the wait starts to see who the next man will be who will make sense of this riddle in an enigma of Zambian football.