By Kalumiana Kalumiana
Chipolopolo midfielder Clatous Chama has given his reasons why Power Dynamos shined this season to retain their FAZ Super League title and why ZESCO United failed to finish as runners-up this term in which they even struggled to make the top 8.
Power were the first club Chama announced his arrival at in 2012 and later spent three seasons at Zesco from 2013 to 2016.
Chama went to excel with Lusaka Dynamos before heading to Simba SC in Tanzania and a brief stint at ambitious Moroccan club RS Berkane before rejoining Simba in 2024.
In a recent interview with ZNBC Radio Sports, Chama said he was happy to see both Power and Zesco qualify for the continental group stages last season but sad to see the latter still struggle in all competitions.
“For ZESCO United I was training with them. I actually even played some friendly games with them. I think the team itself has players, they are good-quality players, but of course, I’ll be honest, there are certain players that I saw who were brought in as foreigners, and they were not just up to the task. That’s how I feel,” Chama said.
“Not being so judgemental, but I feel the standard at ZESCO should be that if they sign any foreign player, he should firstly make an impact in the team. Of course, as a player, you don’t just make an impact physically, but also maybe outside football, outside the match itself, outside that game day. Let us see a foreign player that is going to work hard in training so that even the local players can look up to him.”
Chama said off the pitch Zesco also had administrative issues that saw coach Tennant Chilumba’s very brief stint at the start of the season including the change of management twice in the chief executive officer’s position.
ZESCO have made a rare mid-table finish for a team that has won all its 9 league titles between 2007 and 2021.
“Then comes the wrangles of the officials and the organisation outside the team. It was quite worrying, if I may say, to be honest, because this is one issue, I’ll give an example where they brought in coach Tenant Chilumba from Mufulira Wanderers and then things just went – I don’t know how I’d say it – he was not given the contract. But if you see all that procedure, you find that he had to resign at Mufulira, comes back and hopes that he would be with ZESCO and starts preparing the team. And then later on, he’s not given the contract and he has to leave,” Chama said.
Chama said ZESCO is a very big club not only in Zambia but in Africa and must now seriously go back to the drawing board and rebound in the coming season.
“Football is not something that is so private because at the end of the day, the results and the performance will show. So I think this is one season where ZESCO needs just to learn from and then get back to the right ways and do things correctly so that we put ZESCO back on the map where it belongs. It’s a big team in Zambia, it’s talked about everywhere, and a lot of players are obviously looking forward to joining Zesco,” Chama said.
And on Power, Chama said it is clear the club had set long-term objectives plus the club showed confidence and faith in coach Osward Mutapa’s philosophy which saw them successfully win back-to-back league titles even with the pressure of playing group stage football for the first time in the CAF Champions League where they finished third in Group A.
Power went on to win the league with four games to spare and an unassailable 15-point lead to pick up their 9th league title.
“First, congratulations to them. I think they have had a good season. They have seen some consistency in their results and looking at most of the players that were there last season, they are still there,” Chama said.
“That means there is that continuity. Hopefully, with some new players coming in again for the next season, I’m sure they will be able to challenge for the Champions League. All in all, I think it’s just the right preparation and the right mentality being instilled in the players so that they can reach far in the Champions League.”
Sure? In case does not come early, how about moving to say a nearby place where it can be accessed. We are producing today and may need today and may need to finish early
