Mwepu: His post-Chipolopolo role and his successors

FARPost looks at Enock Mwepu’s potential post-Chipolopolo Zambia role and the options to replace him when the 2023 AFCON Group H qualifiers resume next March.

On October 10, 2022, Mwepu officially retired as a player at the age of 24 on health grounds due to a congenital heart condition.

The diagnosis was made this month following extensive tests after the Brighton and Hove Albion midfielder was taken ill while away on Chipolopolo duty for a friendly against Mali in Bamako last month.

It is exactly five years since Mwepu earned his senior debut, which eventually saw him earn the Chipolopolo captaincy.

During this same phase, the change of guard switched to the Class of 2017 from the Class of 2002, who won the 2012 AFCON.

But last March, former Chipolopolo coach Aljosa Asanovic invited veteran striker and 2012 AFCON winner James Chamanga to join his bench as a Mr Motivator for the team.

Chamanga, 42, declined the invitation insisting his time with Chipolopolo was up and that it was time for the youngsters to take up the mantle.

Well, that baton is still there, and the role may now be appropriate for Mwepu as a non-playing captain as he begins his transition.

Mwepu possesses those heavyweight sentimental attributes to fire up his teammates who may have won the 2017 U20 AFCON but are still battling to end Zambia’s three successive senior AFCON qualification failures.

Meanwhile, what are the options available to replace Mwepu?

Clatous Chama of Simba SC in Tanzania has been part of the setup since his breakout season at the 2015 CHAN tournament in Rwanda.

Chama later had a great 2018 COSAFA Cup in Polokwane, where Zambia lost to Zimbabwe in the final.

But injuries and personal commitments have recently seen Chama absent from the team.

Furthermore, the jury is still out on Chama, particularly over the last two years in which he has struggled to replicate his Simba form with Chipolopolo.

Next is Zesco United’s Kelvin Mubanga, who, like Chama, is also blessed with great technique and vision plus, he is a potent goal scorer.

Mubanga’s limitations are consistency and endurance levels that plummet after the opening hour.

But Mubanga showed leadership last July when he helped inspire Chipolopolo to the 2022 COSAFA Cup title in Durban, where he was also the tournament’s best player.

However, Mubanga’s subsequent display in Chipolopolo’s failed 2023 CHAN qualifiers resurrected concerns about his consistency. 

Then there is the 20-year-old prospect Joshua Mutale of Power Dynamos.

Mutale showed potential at the 2022 COSAFA Cup, earning him one man of the match award, but, like Mubanga, blew hot and cold in the CHAN qualifiers.

But Mutale is still a work in progress, plus grasping elements of teamwork and understandably battling to shed those customary selfish intimacies with the ball.

Mutale’s education continues next week in the 2023 U23 AFCON qualifiers with a first leg away date against Sierra Leone during the weekend of October 22 in Freetown.

However, threatening the trio will be the larger-than-life Augustine Mulenga.

Mulenga has just returned from a seven-month injury layoff incurred during his final days at South African club Amazulu.

The 32-year-old is now back home in Zambia, where he has regrouped to try and resuscitate his career after signing a short-term deal at Napsa Stars that expires at the end of January 2023.

The next six months will be very crucial in the Augustine Mulenga comeback show.

And should it be a success, Mulenga’s his experience, combative and authoritative skills will be essential to carry the burden when Chipolopolo resumes its journey to finally reach the Promised Land for the first time since 2015.