NORAH SHOULDN’T SAY THAT ZAMBIA DOESN’T HAVE MUCH TALENT

NORAH SHOULDN’T SAY THAT ZAMBIA DOESN’T HAVE MUCH TALENT

Zambia National Team Coach Norah Hauptle made a comment that I believe she should not have made after Zambia’s 5-0 loss to Nigeria.

Among the reasons she gave for the defeat, three points stood out.

First, she said that Nigeria has a bigger population than Zambia and therefore a larger pool of players to choose from.

Second, she pointed out that Nigeria has many foreign-based players while Zambia has only ten, which she said negatively impacted the team.

Thirdly she said that Zambia does not have much talent.

While Coach Norah may be right about the difference in population sizes, the puzzling question is why she chose Zambia over Ghana in the first place.

Ghana has a population of around 35 million—larger than Zambia’s—and more than 25 foreign-based players. So why did she agree to coach the Zambia National Women’s Team knowing very well that we do not have many foreign-based players?

Zambia, as a footballing nation, has historically relied on a strong base of home-based players, from as far back as the 1960s up to today.

The Chipolopolo won the 2012 AFCON with Nathan Sinkala, who was at Green Buffaloes, and many players who were mostly based in Africa.

The Copper Queens themselves finished third at the 2022 WAFCON and qualified for the 2023 FIFA World Cup with just four foreign-based players—Margaret Belemu, Hazel Nali, Grace Chanda, and Misozi Zulu.

In fact, in Group B, Zambia had the fewest foreign-based players but still topped the group ahead of Cameroon (who had 22 foreign-based players), Tunisia, and Togo. We even went on to beat Nigeria, who also had more foreign-based players.

To give Coach Norah a break maybe her comment about ” Zambia having little Talent” may have been taken out of context. English isn’t her first language—she’s a German speaker ( I think)—so it may have been lost in translation.

However, Coach Norah presented herself to Zambia as someone who would come and fix the tactical gaps in the team. Talking about population size and claiming Zambia doesn’t have much talent feels like shifting blame.

The coach shouldn’t make local players feel they are doing something wrong by playing in Zambia. If she continues with this line of talk, she will have a serious challenge keeping the squad united.

Coach Norah should realise that her success with the Copper Queens largely depends on local players who form the large part of the squad. This is hoe qualified for two consecutive Olympics and the 2023 FIFA World Cup.

If she continues to praise only the foreign-based players in the media, local players may lose faith in her.

She needs to have a balanced approach when speaking about her squad.