By Pezzy Kudakwashe
As we enjoy the excitement and global celebration of football during the World Cup, many Zambians cannot help but imagine how wonderful it would be to see Zambia competing on the world’s biggest stage.
Yet our ambition should not simply be to qualify for the tournament. Participation alone is not the ultimate goal. Our goal should be to build a football system capable of competing, progressing, and succeeding against the best nations in the world.
For decades, African football has often operated under the assumption that success comes from importing expertise. National teams and clubs have frequently turned to expatriate coaches whenever results have declined, believing that foreign experience is the quickest route to improvement.
Yet across Africa, a different story is emerging. Several African nations are demonstrating that long-term football success is not built merely by importing coaches but by developing local coaching talent, investing in youth systems, and creating pathways for homegrown leadership.
Zambia should take notice. The future of Zambian football will not be secured simply by changing coaches every few years. It will be secured when we commit ourselves to developing Zambian coaches, strengthening grassroots football, and rebuilding the structures that once produced generations of talented players.
The value of local coaches should be at the top of our to-do list. Local coaches understand more than tactics. They understand the culture. They understand the spoken and unspoken language of the local people.
They understand the communities from which players come. They understand the challenges faced by young footballers growing up in compounds, townships, and rural areas.
A local coach often possesses insights that cannot be learned from textbooks alone. This does not mean expatriate coaches have no role to play. Many have contributed positively to African football.
However, relying exclusively on foreign expertise creates dependency rather than sustainability. A nation cannot build football excellence if its own coaches are continually overlooked.
The goal should be to develop Zambian coaches who can compete with the best in the world. That requires investment, education, mentorship, and opportunity.
Education must become a priority. If Zambia wants world-class football, Zambia must produce world-class coaches. This means expanding coaching education: more CAF licences, more scholarships, more partnerships with international football institutions, and more opportunities for coaches to study sports science, performance analysis, sports psychology, and youth development.
The world’s leading football nations invest heavily in coaching education because they understand a simple truth: better coaches produce better players.
Every kwacha invested in coaching education becomes an investment in the future of Zambian football.
The greatest football nations do not begin at the national team level. They begin in communities. They begin in schools. They begin on dusty fields where young boys and girls first learn to love the game.
Football is a huge business and should be taken seriously. A nation like Brazil earns substantial income through international transfers.
Brazil consistently exports more footballers than any other country in the world. In recent years, more than 1,200–1,500 Brazilian players have been playing professionally outside Brazil. Brazilian clubs often receive between US$300 million and US$500 million or more per year in international transfer fees.
Zambia could take a leaf from the Brazilians. For many years, Zambia produced outstanding football talent through community clubs, school competitions, and structured youth development programmes.
Those systems identified talent early and provided pathways for growth. Today, many grassroots programmes struggle because resources are limited and support is inconsistent.
If Zambia wants to compete internationally, grassroots football must become a national priority. The next Godfrey Chitalu, Zoom Ndhlovu, Kalusha Bwalya, Christopher Katongo, Rainford Kalaba, Barbara Banda, or Racheal Kundananji is likely already playing somewhere in Zambia.
The question is whether the system will discover and develop that talent.
One of the significant challenges facing Zambian football has been the decline of many sports development programmes that once existed under state-owned enterprises.
Before privatisation, many parastatal companies sponsored clubs, maintained sports facilities, and invested in youth programmes.
Football, and sports in general, were not viewed merely as entertainment. They were viewed as tools for community development.
Many clubs operated youth structures that continuously identified and developed talent. When many state enterprises were privatised, some of these programmes disappeared.
New owners understandably focused on business performance rather than community sports development. As a result, numerous youth projects lost funding, facilities deteriorated, and development pathways weakened. The consequences are still being felt today.
The issue is not whether privatisation itself was right or wrong. The issue is that sports development structures were not adequately replaced.
A nation cannot expect football to flourish if the developmental foundations are neglected. The solution is not to return to the past. The solution is to learn from it.
Government, businesses, football administrators, schools, and communities must work together to build a modern football development model.
Such a model should include investment in coaching education, strong school football programmes, community-based football academies, partnerships between local and international clubs and communities, long-term intentional youth development programmes, increased opportunities for women’s football, and improved sports facilities throughout the country.
Football development cannot depend solely on the national team. It must be built from the ground up.
Zambia has never lacked talent. What Zambia needs is a system that consistently develops talent. The future of football in Zambia will not be determined only by who coaches the national team next year.
It will be determined by how many young coaches we train today. It will be determined by how many grassroots programmes we support. It will be determined by whether we create opportunities for local expertise to grow and thrive.
The nations that dominate football are not necessarily those with the greatest resources. They are the nations with the strongest development systems.
Zambia has the talent. Zambia has the passion. Zambia has the football culture. Now Zambia must invest in its own people.
The future of Zambian football should not be imported; it should be developed, nurtured, and led by Zambians themselves.
