Patson Daka will miss the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AfCON) qualifiers against Ivory Coast and Sierra Leone in September after sustaining an ankle injury during Leicester City’s final preseason game.
The Zambian is set to miss several important matches after Leicester City manager Steve Cooper confirmed on Friday that the striker is undergoing surgery that will keep him out of action for several months.
Now, Cooper and Chipolopolo head coach Avram Grant must find a center forward to lead their respective attacks in the coming weeks. While the former has few options, with Jamie Vardy also injured, the Copper Bullets coach has a large pool of players to choose from.
BolaNews takes a look at Zambian forwards who can fill Daka’s role in the AfCON preliminaries.
DREAM: Kingstone Mutandwa (Cagliari Calcio)
If you are looking for a striker who could mimic Daka’s speed, work rate, and finishing ability, then Kingston Mutandwa might be the right man. The youngster showcased his top-notch finishing in the World Cup qualifiers against Tanzania with an acrobatic overhead kick goal that was eventually ruled out.
“He is a good talent. He has quality that can help us. It’s a position that we are struggling. We don’t have enough strikers,” Grant said about Mutandwa in an exclusive interview with BolaNews earlier this year.
REALISTIC: Kennedy Musonda (Yanga SC)
Among the strikers regularly called up to the national team by Grant, no one has had as much opportunity to understudy Daka as Kennedy Musonda. The Tanzanian-based forward often features a support striker for the Leicester City star, either as a starter or from the substitute’s bench.
Musonda, who once stated that he wouldn’t mind playing the role of a ball boy for the Copper Bullets, shows the sort of qualities that the Chipolopolo head coach appreciates: quality, passion, and desire.
WILDCARD: Fashion Sakala (Al Fayha)
While Fashion Sakala is typically deployed out wide for the Chipolopolo, there’s no denying that his goal-scoring ability is on par with that of a center forward.
No Zambian player scored as many goals as Fashion Sakala for club and country last season. He notched an impressive total of 25 goals in 46 games for Zambia and Al Fayha in the 2023–24 campaign.
However, the role Sakala will be deployed in next month is the least of his concerns, as he awaits his first national team call-up since January after falling out with Avram Grant.
OTHER OPTIONS: Andrew Phiri, Ricky Banda, Francisco Mwepu, Moyela Libamba.
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