Concerns have been raised by some fans and pundits about Zambian players’ lack of consistency, and former Zambia National Team coach Wedson Nyirenda has agreed and explained why this has remained a major issue, particularly in the MTN Super League.

According to Zanaco FC’s head coach, Zambian players become excited after being paid and forget about furthering their careers, resulting in a low level of satisfaction.

“One of the biggest problems we’ve had with our players is the low satisfaction level. Our players who get this thing of signing on fee nowadays, they get signing on fee, which is good. It’s good for their lives, but immediately they get paid. They forget about the game,” Nyirenda noted. “They’ll come back; you’ll see them to be good players again when the money is finished.” 

Zambian players need counselling – Nyirenda

Nyrenda was speaking following the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ)’s national player selection exercise, which concluded on Wednesday at the Woodlands Stadium in Lusaka, where he coached The Rest squad of players from the National Division One, Provincial Leagues, and the top flight against Avram Grant’s All-Stars squad and lost 3-1.

He wants coaches in the country to begin offering counseling sessions to their players on how to manage their careers.

“All the Premier Division coaches and the other coaches in the other divisions should have sessions for counseling for these players that we have in our nation.

“It’s not enough just to come and do the techniques…. To come and do the tactics, and then you leave the players to go. We need to start counselling our players in terms of how to handle themselves and how to handle fame. Our players play one season and it’s over. A player who scored more goals this season, come and look at him next season; he’ll be nowhere near half of the goals that he scored. It is because he’s already satisfied; he’s still riding on those goals. So we need to get that discipline into them.”

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