• ZAMBIAN players break into prayer after scoring the first goal by Patson Daka during yesterday’s final at National Heroes Stadium in Lusaka. Picture by GWEN CHIPASULA

By SHAMAOMA MUSONDA and SANDRA MWILA At Heroes National Stadium –
SENEGAL caused a stir yesterday during the Under-20 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) final when a clear case of superstition and juju use was openly displayed as defeat to Zambia looked eminent.
Coming off a semi-final that had a video going viral involving two Senegalese players secretly exchanging a ‘lucky charm’ as the one holding it was to be substituted injured, the West African players had reason to hide their ‘juju’ in this game.
After going down 2-0 by half-time and failing to find a goal in the second-half, Senegal had a free kick in the 76th minute on the edge of the touch line.
Senegal forward Ibrahim Naine, who was at the centre of the video in the semi-final game against Guinea, threw the ‘ lucky charm’ object into
Mangani Banda’s net, leading to ugly scenes of protests from the Zambian players.
They brought it to the attention of referee Thierry Nkurunziza as other players became physical and causing worry among the fans after seeing it on the big screen.
The Zambian players on pitch resorted to prayer to fight off the ‘evil’, an act that was similar practised in the stands as tensions rose both on the pitch.
As was evident from the first match, the Zambian players have always started and ended a match with prayer and that has even happened at times when they have scored.
Senegal coach Joseph Koto when asked to comment on the matter after the game said he does not believe in all the superstition involved in the game and that winning the game was down to preparations and not juju.
“Honestly, I did not see the incident but I can tell you that juju or any of the superstition involved does not work,  if Senegal had won the game, it would have been attributed to the juju but we lost and that means these things do not work,” he said.
He said it was important that players understood that winning a game was down to preparations and that was what they needed to believe in and not any foreign matter to help them win the game or their careers.
Zambia coach Beston Chambeshi described the incident as unfortunate and charged that preparations decided whether a team won or lost a game.
Chambeshi admitted that there was a lot of superstition in football and regretted that it was wasting away a lot of players who did not want to believe in their God-given talent.
“This is a sad act and Zambia as a Christian Nation dedicated each game to  prayer. This juju is just a brainwashing that happens to the players and unfortunately, some players get to think if they apply an oil, for example, they get to play well, but that just sees them not progressing as they realise too late that it does not work.
And striker Fashion Sakala said Zambia was a Christian nation and that the players believed in committing all their activities in his hands.
Sakala said superstition in football was a sheer waste of time as only hard work and adequate preparation help win games.
“We never get affected by the use of Juju by teams even when that incident happened we knew it was nothing. Juju does not work and moreover we believe in God,” he said.
These ugly scenes were always going to happen especially that when the game was starting, the Senegal players walked onto the pitch imitating the Zambia ‘favour’ sign, rounding a palm over their head as in receiving Godly blessings.
But each of the Senegalese players had a water bottle with them which they sprinkled on the touch line before they crossed ahead of the match.