Zambia head coach Avram Grant says the TotalEnergies Africa Nations Championship isn’t just about winning but also laying the foundation of the senior national team.
The local Chipolopolo will face hosts Kenya, two-time winners Morocco and DR Congo plus Angola in the 2024 CHAN tournament and Grant says the competition is important for scouting players.
“At the moment, we are preparing well because CHAN is very important for us,” he is quoted on Cafonline. “We don’t have many players in Europe like other countries who have lots of their first team players abroad,” he added.
For us, we mostly use players who play locally, and we have already shown what we can do—like when we beat Ivory Coast. Normally, this tournament gives us an opportunity to see more players for the first team, which is good for creating competition.
Zambia’s opponents look very formidable but for the former Chelsea manager, the opponent doesn’t matter here ad concentration will be on his team.
“In this competition, we will concentrate more on our team and its development to see who gets promoted to the first team. Of course, we can only do that when we have a winning mentality like we’ve shown in the past,” he said.
“For CHAN, I don’t think the opponent is important. What’s key for us is to play as a team and show that winning mentality.
“CHAN is like a tool for us. Our main national team is composed of local players. We have a tough group, but that will help us grow in such an environment,” he explained.
Grant sees CHAN as a chance for young players to grow and is optimistic given the preps his team have had.
“For the young players, this is a chance to grow and mature. They still need a bit of guidance and polishing, but I’m sure we will achieve a good tournament with them.”
“We will do our best because over the last few games, we’ve shown good football and a lot of improvement. We’ve kept four clean sheets in a row. Now we are facing a different challenge and want to continue improving these players. This is the target.”