ECUADORIAN coach Juan Carlos Ayala says Zambia has the potential to become a football powerhouse in the region.
In an interview, Ayala, who is currently the technical director of the newly promoted Lusaka Tigers said the country had a lot of talent that was going to waste due to late identification.
He said the greatest challenge was the slow pace at which tapping the right talent at a young age was taking place.
“If you look at these players, physically they are very fit but the challenge is their level of technique. And this is a drawback in developing the sport because by the time they attain the technical aspect, they are already old,” he said.
Ayala said there was need to enhance introduction of sports in schools and colleges so that sportsmen are introduced to tactics at an early age for them to contribute positively to the nation when they grow up.
“Early tapping of talent is the only challenge and these players now lack what we call in ‘Ecuador’ the ‘tactical culture’ which helps the player to automatically perceive a better positioning in the field and assimilate movements in line with a game plan,” Ayala said.
He said there was need to introduce players to professionalism at a tender age so that their value could bear fruits in the long run.
ZamFoot verdict: Ayala is spot on!
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True case in point is Winstone Kalengo who got discovered at 30. Players like Walter Bwalya should be introduced into the national team now. Otherwise he will be another wasted talent.
No qualified coaches and grassroots levels is part of the issue. FAZ need to have coaching clinics and certifications applied at grassroots level to improve skills at this level. There too many football fans at community league level masquerading as coaches and that’s why we see this problem. Even the US has young soccer coaching and training certification for anyone who coaches kid in the affiliated community leagues.
Dats vry true nd as lng as FAZ can’t introduse diz coachin clinins o coachin certificates dis problem will go on nd on,coz its nw o nvr!!
@Logic you are spot on.
You can’t just start coaching with no proper training. We need this guy, Kabwe warriors coach to work on our youth teams especially U20 Zambia 2017. Then assist Lwandamina.
True ba coach but even Ecuador is the same thts why they r one of the two teams not 2 hv won the copa america on the continent. Anyways thanx 4 yo observation.
who is ayala? and what are his football credentials? what makes him an expert?
Ayala, is talking as if Ecuador has ever won the World CUP; COPA; Cups etc. The things he is talking about have to be weighted against other needy areas in the Zambian society. But he has a point, we need to restructure our football administration system, keeping in mind that we are a low-income economy.
We will wait to see how Lusaka Tigers will fare this season under Ayala’s Guidance. He reminds me of the Equatorial Guinea Coach who before the 2012 AFCON said that Zambian was the weakest team in his group. He bitterly swallowed his words after the group games, when Zambia was the only team to beat EQG in the qualifiers and the first to hammer it in the tournament.
Ayala has played football in countries that rank high on FIFA ladder! He has played in Argentina, Spain and Portugal. Ecuador might not have won a big competition but the man is spot on and very knowledgeable where soccer is concerned.
What this coach has said is very true and those of us who watch the local league and ardent followers of Chipolopolo agree with him whether he is an experience coach or not. The fact is, what he said is true and anyone with basic knowledge of soccer should have difficulties in understanding this. Off- course we do not need someone to travel all the way to come and make such a observation and air- out his views. Our very own technical people should be resounding these words. The other truth is holding clinics for people coaching at lower levels cannot cry for alot of resources. If we have the will to harness the talent we keep boosting about then lets find the resources to invest in this. My view is that like any other career, soccer and indeed any other sport should be well support even creating bursary/ scholarship for people to study. As government you recoup your Returns when these people excel and start sending remmittances to their relatives and also from the investments that they will come up with locally. Currently, our soccer players in the diaspora are among the people behind major investments including buildings- imagine if we a good numbers doing fine locally and abroad. The problem we always want to reap were we did not sow.
All the way with ZESCO and ZANACO!
Allow me to cast my 2 cents for the 40th time meaning I am almost at a dollar.
The man is absolutely right. I have said time and again, get the schools involved in football i.e. have provincial or regional leagues. Also train up some coaches like has been suggested by one of the bloggers above.
The Universities too should be involved in college/university competitions. There are more madala leagues than junior leagues in Zambia and somehow this seems okay with whoever is running the game. SMDH
Nice observation and have already observation its only my voice is voiceless however, at grass root we doing nothing in terms of sports at large we have no a academies of sports in rural Zambia. Imagine someone will come to kick football age of 12 with the coming of phones children this time there not make “Icipobwe” a ball with plastic bags no fields for them to play football… Let FAZ and schools partner in talent identification and development of soccer if football can be enhance in schools then we can have quality players at National level.. For Examples players like MBola, Chansa once played active football in schools in Mansa
In my experience young boys where not able to predict the trajectory of a high ball. They would run while watching the ball hence lose out on a good pass which would have set them through with little opposition had they spent more energy sprinting to the area where the ball will land. One example and your specialist at taking such passes is Vardy of Leceister. The other one ikupinikila bola and another they cant shoot through the legs.
Interesting times in Zambian football. We have This guy coaching in the league and a Hungarian at Livingstone Pirates, Muhammad at Kabwe Warriors – really interesting
Can’t agree more with 99% of comments….we know what the problem is but the trouble is there’s no willingness on the part of those we choose to lead us to do what’s right. That’s the real issue. That’s true for virtually every aspect of life in which we are struggling….it seems to me the problem is very deeply rooted!
And to comment on this blog you had to be a technically adept person, let me just post this extract here…
“In some respects football is all about timing; when to play a pass, when to shoot, when to step up to catch an opponent offside. It is also about when to challenge for a header or the right moment to slide in and dispossess the opponent. In the case of heading and tackling, these are two aspects of the game where technical ability can mean the difference between success and failure. They are also aspects of the game where a lack of technique can leave either or both players nursing an injury.
So many situations during a game of football are decided by fractions of a second…” Technical Ability in Football by Mike Kiely BA (hons) retrieved from http://www.safesport.co.uk/technicalabilityinfootball.html.
With the infrastructure like stadia in place introduce a football class in a good number of schools and bingo…you can guess what will follow after 10 yrs. I imagine the football culture in our makeup will produce us proper footballers of a world class standard.
Spot on…..
Mr kamanga and new team at FAZ,here is a hint for you,Start and we will reap 10 years from now.In the meantime?
Been saying this along time. Look at the first comment i made when Kamanga was appointed.
This is another reason Zambia can struggle with minnows, they closed the gap technically. Zambia has not progressed enough.
Been saying this for along time…
Faz must do something to inject knowledge and training into the country.