Sports

NO KALABA

By MICHAEL MIYOBA
FORMER Chipolopolo captain Rainford Kalaba’s absence at national team has continued after Chipolopolo coach Milutin ‘Micho’ Sredojevic declared interest in two Mazembe players out of the three Zambians who play for the Congolese giants.

‘Micho’ has called defenders Tandi Mwape and Kabaso Chongo for the three friendly fixtures against Malawi, South Africa and Kenya.
TP Mazembe confirmed that ‘Micho’ has only invited the two defenders in Mwape and Chongo while Kalaba, the 2012 AFCON winner who is also the captain for TP Mazembe, has not been considered.
It is however not the first time Kalaba has been left out of the team as he was also sidelined by former Chipolopolo coach Wedson Nyirenda who had assembled a young Chipolopolo squad which went on to beat Algeria home and away in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers.
‘Micho’ who has summoned 40 local players said he would call seven players from Europe while six players would be called from various African Leagues.
The Serbian said he would use the game against Malawi to observe some local players and some of the foreign players who need more assessment.
“We shall make a competitive squad where the first match against Malawi we are looking to give chance mostly to the local players and some of the players playing outside that we have not seen enough”
“We are going with the combined squad to Kenya. In the first two matches against Kenya and against Malawi we want to see what the best amongst the local players so that we have the general check up against Bafana Bafana we see where we are, how we are and which direction to go,” said ‘Micho.’
He said the technical bench was looking at adding a bonus friendly against any of the top three South African Premier Soccer League clubs before travelling to Kenya for the last friendly game.

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