Sports 

Herve Renard and Zambia looks to conquer Africa

Hawa Wesseh

 

With the Afcons tournament drawing nearer and nearer,  South African fans believe their embattled team could steal the Afcons crown expected to be hosted in their back yards next month. In a pool conducted by goal.com, the SA fans said Bafana Bafana’s capability of winning the Afcons tournament on home soil was a strong possibility. Daniel Eslick said “South Africa readers feel that the national side have a good chance of becoming champions of Africa… 42 percent of voters chose Bafana Bafana as their winners of Afcons 2013. The national side garnered the majority of the votes with perennial tournament favorites Ivory Coast coming a distant second with 20 percent of the vote.”

The Nigerian Super Eagles came third in the polling data while the Back Stars of Ghana placed fourth.

Zambia the current African champions who are still showing the team still has a fight in them, considering they recently beat South Africa, Ghana and Uganda, received 8percent of the votes.

Herve Renard, the French Zambian coach is disagreeing. Crowned recently the best coach in Africa, this year,  the coach said he believe his side the Chipolopolo were ready for the Afcons tournament. Speaking at the annual Glo Confederation African football [CAF} awards in Accra, he said  “I want to dedicate this trophy to Football Association Zambia [FAZ] president, Kalusha Bwalya and especially to Claude LeRoy because he brought me this far.”

Renard coached in Ghana as a deputy under Leroy. And when Coach Leroy left the post in 2008, after a successful run for duties in the gulf state of Oman, the Ghanaian FA overlooked Renard. He would eventually settle with the FA Zambia.

The Zambian coach then added “We’re going to conquer Africa once again.” Renard has worked wonders with the Chipolopolo reports say considering his team is not star studded, and yet he has brought recognition to the team. He led Zambia to win the 2012 Afcons tournament at the expense of the fanciful Elephants of Ivory Coast, which included Didier Drougba. Didier who last season played for Chelsea FC in England scored 100 goals in 226 appearances from 2004 to 2012. He led Chelsea to the English championship before departing for China.

Zambia has been paired in Group C with Steve Keshi’s Nigeria, Burkina Faso and Ethiopia.  Bafana Bafana the home favorites will be looking to start on a good footing when they meet Cape Verde Islands on January 19th to open the biggest football show piece on the continent in Johannesburg.

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