The Zambia National Team will return to the continent’s biggest football showpiece, the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), after missing the last three editions.

The Chipolopolo Boys, who won the tournament for the first time in 2012, are in Group F alongside Morocco, DR Congo, and Tanzania.

The 34th edition of the AFCON will kick off on January 13, 2024 in Ivory Coast.

Zambia will begin their campaign in San Pedro on January 17, against Congo, before facing Tanzania four days later and concluding their ground-stage matches against the Atlas Lions.

However, Chipolopolo coach Avram Grant, who has never been eliminated from the competition’s group stage, having reached the final in 2015 and the semifinal in 2017, says fans should be realistic about the targets they are setting for the team.

“I don’t like setting targets,” he told reporters at the Heroes National Stadium when asked about his target at the AFCON.

The former Chelsea FC gaffer continued: “We need to be reasonable. We are pot three in Africa, which means there are two teams [in the group] better than us and they are better on paper but of course, Ivory Coast was also better than us [but we beat them in the qualifiers].

“We need to be very realistic; we need to look at what we have, which team we have and then we can take the best from our team…… And even if we are not at the top at the moment, this is our target [to be at the top].”

Over the weekend, Grant announced his 27-man squad, which included Leicester City striker Patson Daka, Al Fayha star Fashion Sakala, and US Lecce rapid winger Lameck Banda.

According to the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ), the Chipolopolo Boys will fly to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday night for a pre-AFCON camp where they will play a friendly match against Cameroon.