The selection of Christopher Katongo and Isaac Chansa into the Zambia team that will participate in the African Nations Championship, CHAN, in Rwanda in January has raised eyebrows in football circles.
The two players, part of the generation introduced into the national team more than a decade ago have been out of the national team picture since 2013 in Chanda's case and 2014 in Katongo's.
Coach George Lwandamina's selection of the two into a tournament that is largely meant to develop players prevents two young players who are progressing in their careers from taking a forward step in their developmental process.
This is detrimental for the long term development of the next generation of players and the future of the national team. Zambia should be looking at bigger objectives such as qualification for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations and the 2018 World Cup in Russia. To include two players who will not be a part of this qualification process in a developmental team loses sight of the purposes of these competitions. I have always been opposed to the selection of players from the senior national team into junior sides as it adds nothing to their development and denies those players who need the experience to get to the next stage of their growth.
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