By SHAMAOMA MUSONDA –

in Rubavu
GEORGE ‘Chicken’ Lwandamina says the performance of Christopher Katongo and Isaac Chansa at the ongoing Rwanda 2016 Africa Nations Championship (CHAN) has justified his hugely criticised decision to include the duo into the national team.
Lwandamina said in a post-match interview that the bringing in of the two was merely done to help the young squad learn a thing or two and that it was good the objective was getting attained.
Katongo and Chansa were called to the national team after being exiled partly by a FAZ decision to raise a new breed of players to take over from the 2012 Africa Cup winning squad which was said to be aging.
But Lwandamina bravely summoned the two for the tournament, a move that was criticised as it was anti-development as Katongo and Chansa would not be available for the Russia 2018 World Cup.
Chansa and Katongo are the only ones to have scored for Zambia at the CHAN after finding the back of the net in the identical 1-0 wins over Zimbabwe and Uganda to reach the quarter-finals with a game to spare.
“It was all about the experience that these players have that I wanted inculcated in the young squad and I think it is working well. They are showing leadership and it is important in a young player’s development,” he said.
Katongo said he felt inspired playing alongside the big stars when growing up and now wanted to inspire the young players as they grew in the careers.
“When I was young, I felt inspired when playing with the stars of that time. I would say I want to be like them and I am sure I and Isaac are doing the same to these young guys in the team.
“I have been to five Africa Cup of Nations, won the Africa Cup before and been named BBC African Footballer-of-the-Year. This will obviously lift the spirits of one or two players,” Katongo said.
Katongo showered praise on Lwandamina for including him into the team and for believing that he could still deliver and jokingly apologised to Uganda for hurting them again.
He scored the only goal when Zambia beat Uganda 1-0 in Ndola in the final stage of qualifiers for the 2013 Africa Cup.
“I seem to like scoring against Uganda. I scored in Ndola and you went back crying. Again I scored here, I am sorry but we need to qualify to the next round and we just had to win,” Katongo said.
Uganda coach Milutin ‘Micho’ Sredojevic said the loss really hurt, especially that they had planned for Zambia to the finest detail.
“We planned for Zambia very well. We had all details in place, to score first, how to respond if we concede first but it all failed. It’s very sad but I know some of my players did well and others failed to perform despite being the experienced ones,” he said.