Chambeshi appointed new Zambia coach to replace Sredojevic

Football Association of Zambia has named Beston Chambeshi as the new head coach for the national team with immediate effect.

In a statement issued by the federation’s Communications Manager Sydney Mungala and obtained by Goal, Chambeshi has been handed the vacant role, a week after they parted ways with Serbian Milutin ‘Micho’ Sredojevic on mutual agreement.

“Following the mutual separation between the Football Association of Zambia [Faz] and Milutin [Sredojevic], the executive committee met on July 24, 2021, to chart the way forward,” read part of the statement.

“Considering the forthcoming Fifa World Cup qualifiers in September-November, and the lengthy recruitment process, it would not be possible to employ a substantive national coach.

“In view of the short time before the commencement of the World Cup qualifiers, Faz has announced a reconstituted interim technical bench for the senior men’s national team to be headed by Beston [Chambeshi], who will be assisted by Numba Mumamba.”

The statement continued: “In addition, the executive committee appointed Croatian Aljosa Asanovic as Technical Advisor as part of the technical bench. The reconstituted bench will be in charge for three months.

“Faz has confidence in both Chambeshi and Mumamba on account of their previous performances with various national teams.

“Chambeshi was head coach of the U20 side that won the Africa Cup of Nations in 2017 and guided Zambia to the 2017 U20 Fifa World Cup where they reached a historic quarter-final place while Mumamba led Zambia to their first-ever Cosafa U17 title in 2017 and has also been head coach of the U20 national team.

“He has also previously served as an assistant coach at the senior national team. Faz is grateful to Nkana and Zesco United for allowing the duo to serve club and country as coaches for a short-term period.”

On why they had appointed Asanovic, Mungala explained: “The inclusion of Asanovic is to ensure there are no gaps in the performance of the national teams.

“The 55-year-old Asanovic served as assistant coach of the Croatia Football National Team from 2006-2012 under Slaven Bilic. He also served as an assistant coach for Lokomotiv Moscow among other club designations. In his playing career, he starred for Italian giants Napoli and Panathinaikos in Greece.

“Faz wishes to thank the Croatian Football Association for allowing Asanovic to take up this appointment, away from his role at the Association where he serves as an instructor in the technical directorate in Croatia.

“Faz is focused on ensuring that we enter the Qatar 2022 Fifa World Cup qualifiers with a solid technical bench.”

Zambia are in Group B of the World Cup qualifiers alongside Tunisia, Mauritania, and Equatorial Guinea.