Despite winning the AFCON title in 2012 and establishing a strong footballing history on the continent, Zambia is yet to qualify for football’s biggest tournament.
Mayuka, who scored three goals at the 2012 AFCON to help Zambia secure its first-ever continental title, said, “The reason why we are not performing at the highest level [and failing to qualify for the World Cup] is because of consistency. Football is like building a house; you cannot start building from the roof going down; you have to start from down going up. When we are talking about building a national team, we have to start from scratch.”
When asked whether he regrets never having played at the FIFA World Cup, the 35-year-old former Southampton striker said it was a dream of his but that he has no regrets, believing the next generation can achieve it.
“It’s something I wanted to achieve with the national team. Whatever God allows you to have, you accept it, so I cannot say it was a regret. I believe that the next generation will pick it going forward.”
Asked what needs to be done by the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ), Mayuka emphasized that the focus should be on strengthening the foundation of the game.
“We should go back to the roots. The foundation. We should start from scratch again because quick fix is easy, I am not saying the new FAZ president is doing something wrong, he just came in, so probably he knows what he is going to do. So I believe that he knows that we should tackle this and that, but the basic part of everything in Zambian football is we need to start from scratch,” Mayuka said.
He continued: “We should establish the foundation; its not too late, we have time, the young ones are there, we should just find a structure, and we should have leadership in that team, simple and straightforward. I am not criticizing the players or anything, but we should have leadership in that team.”
Mayuka was speaking on That Zed Podcast.
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