Understanding James Chamanga’s decline to honor the national team call up

2012 AFCON winner James Chamanga recently declined a call up to the Zambia Men’s Senior National Football team.

The ZamFoot Crew understands that there is a bit more to the story and there is a reason for Chamanga’s decline to honor the call.

The 42-year-old was named in Aljosa Asanovic’s 23 member squad for the upcoming AFCON qualifiers against Ivory Coast and Comoros.

In 2020 Chamanga said he had done his part for the national team and could not accept a call up as it would rob chance from a young player.

However Chamanga was expected to make a Sensational return to the Chipolopolo Boys set up in a different capacity.

The former Supersport United forward was expected to be part of the squad, train with the young players and mentor them but was not going to play in games.

The idea was to motivate the players to do more by emulating and learning from a player who has been there and done it before like James Chamanga.

The ZamFoot Crew understands that Asanovic on the other expected a different role from the Red Arrows striker, something similar to logistics manager or kit manager.

The failure to agree on the role meant Chamanga had to turn down the call.

The former Dalian Shide man has been playing the mentor role at Red Arrows taking players like Joseph Phiri and Ricky Banda under his wing.

When he played in the South African PSL, he won the golden boot in the 2007/2008 season when he scored 14 goals. That same year he moved to China where he played for 10 years until 2018.

He is a veteran of four Africa Cup of Nations Tournaments and boasts of having scored a goal at each of the finals he played in. He played at the 2006, 2008, 2010 and won gold at the 2012 tournament.

The Copper Bullets will start their campaign away in Ivory Coast on June 3rd before hosting Comoros four days later.