17 foreigners jostle for Zambia national soccer team coaching job

A total of 17 foreigners have applied for the vacant coaching job of the Zambia national team, the country's football governing body said on Thursday.

Ponga Liwewe, General Secretary of the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) said 17 foreigners have applied for the Chipolopolo job and that the list will be reduced to a shortlist of four candidates, who will be interviewed next week, reports Xinhua.

"All I can say for now is that 17 foreign coaches have applied for the Chipolopolo job. We shall shortlist four names and those will be interviewed by the end of next week. If everything goes well, we can have the whole process completed by next week and have a coach in place," Liwewe was quoted as saying by the Times of Zambia.

The national soccer team has had no coach since October 2013 when Frenchman Herve Renard ditched the team. His assistant Patrice Beaumelle was left in charge of the team but he equally dumped the team to join his compatriot at French side FC Sochaux.

Since then, the team has been drilled by local coaches on a care-taker capacity. Zambia has failed to qualify for the Gabon 2017 Africa Cup of Nations, forcing the soccer governing body to scout for a foreign coach before the start of the 2018 World Cup qualifiers.

Zambia has been drawn along with Cameroon, Algeria and Nigeria in the same pool.

--IANS

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