Zambia Ditch Chubby Star for African Cup of Nations

Zambia coach Patrick Phiri has ditched two if his biggest-name from the Chipolopolo African Cup of Nations squad. Zambia’s most famous striker Collins Mbesuma (pictured in happier times) was told he’s carrying too much weight and isn’t wanted. The 23 year old striker - who plays for Bursaspor in Turkey and has had spells at Premier League Portsmouth and South Africa’s famous Kaizer Chiefs - played in Zambia’s recent AFCON warm-up game against Tunisia, but didn’t do enough to impress. Similarly veteran defender Elijah Tana has been left out of the final 23-man squad for failing to travel and meet up with the team, while Zambia will also be without injured German based duo Andrew Sinkala and Moses Sichone.

Zambia’s spokesman Joseph Nkole basically explained that Mbesuma had failed to meet Phiri’s fitness requirements, so they were out. Simple as that. He’s not worried about losing a player of Mbesuma’s talent either, saying “Zambia has a lot of players and we shall soon find a replacement for Mbesuma.”

Got to say I’m on board with this team-first, big-names-second approach. If you look back to Brazil’s disaster at World Cup 2006, it was basically down to them relying on two big name but clearly overweight strikers in Ronaldo and Adriano. Clearly Zambia want to avoid the same fate.

As for Mbesuma, he’s only 23. So provided he learns a lesson from this omission he should have plenty more chances to represent Zambia at the African Cup of Nations in the future.

[this post was updated on Jan 13th]