Avram Grant Appointed Zambia Coach

Former Chelsea manager Avram Grant (67) has been named head coach of the Zambian national team.

The gaffer was appointed by the Zambia Football Association on Thursday, Dec. 22. Champions League finalist with ‘the Blues’ in 2008, the Israeli technician, who also coached English club West Ham, the Ghana national team (which he led to the AFCON final in 2015) signed up for two years.

He will have to strengthen the Zambian team that has failed to qualify for the last three editions of the Africa Cup of Nations. Grant succeeds Croatian trainer Aljosa Asanovic who left his post over a salary dispute.

“I’m very happy to be here, I think Zambia has potential,” Grant said in a press conference in Lusaka. In 2012, Zambia, trained by Frenchman Hervé Renard, had created the country’s greatest feat by winning the AFCON, its first continental title, against Côte d’Ivoire.

Grant, who began his coaching career at the age of 18, will have as his first objective to qualify the team for the final phase of the 2023 AFCON, in a group which also includes Côte d’Ivoire, Lesotho and the Comoros.