Chipolopolo coach Avram Grant says he hopes several locally based players will attract the interest of European teams at the African Nations Championship (CHAN) next month.

Grant has taken charge of the CHAN squad from Wedson Nyirenda. He will lead the team at the tournament that is reserved for locally based players next month.

Zambia is in Group A alongside co-hosts Kenya, Morocco, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and Angola.

On Wednesday, Grant dated reporters on the sidelines of the team’s training session, where he echoed his long-held view of the importance of having many players in Europe.

“I think the CHAN is very important for us because it’s not a secret; we don’t have many players that play in Europe. All the big teams in countries have a lot of players that play in Europe,” the former Chelsea and West Ham coach said. “All the squad are playing in Europe, which is normal because you have better conditions, better education.”

Grant wants to see more players

He said the CHAN is an opportunity for him to access players that he can integrate into the main Chipolopolo squad.

“Normally, as you know, I am the coach of the first team, but I think also for me it’s an opportunity to see the players and who we can use for the first team. So it’s a good competition for us,” he said.

Grant did not want to dwell much on analysing the group opponents.

“I think in this competition we are more concentrated on our team, to develop them, to develop them personally, and to see who can promote to the first team. And, of course, you can do it only when you have a winning mentality. We showed in the last qualification to Africa that we have a winning mentality,” he said.

He continued, “So for me it’s important to see because, as I said before, we don’t have many players in Europe. I hope that we will have through even this competition.”