BY JUDITH NWABIA
Former Chipolopolo boss and Morocco head coach, Herve Renard has advised Zambia not to target qualifying for the Russia 2018 World Cup.
Renard, who led the Chipolopolo to their first ever Afcon victory, points out that group B mates Nigeria, Algeria and Cameroon who are Africa’s heavyweights are too much for the Zambian side to handle and has urged them to focus more on starting over by rebuilding their team.
The tactician while speaking in Zambia when he went to see his family, admitted that there are lots of talents in the South African country but it will definitely take time for them to be groomed and insisted that 2018 World Cup shouldn’t be a priority.
“Zambia has had a lot of talent and will have talent for a long time to come. If you have to achieve something at international level, you need team spirit but we need to start a new process of rebuilding the national team,” Renard told the Post of Zambia.
“It will take some time. The next target should not be to qualify to the next World Cup.
“You need time to rebuild something very strong, build a strong team. People are sometimes not patient, but they should be patient; the talent is here, the skill is here too, so what we need is to start all over.
“I saw their (Chipolopolo) game against Nigeria and they played well in the second half but they were down 2-0 already.
“At international level, when you have teams like Algeria, Nigeria and Cameroon, it’s very tough. People need to be calm because it will be very tough in the qualifiers.
“Zambia might do well but these teams are very tough, they are the three of the best big five teams in Africa…for Zambia, it’s too much.”
Zambia sits at the base of Group B with no point having lost their first qualifier at home to the Super Eagles of Nigeria.
