Under-20 coach refuses inclusion of his players in Snr team

Malawi Under-20 national soccer team coach Ernest Mtawali has expressed reservations on Flames’ plan to incorporate three of his key players into the senior team.

The senior Flames team is preparing for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations final preliminary round against Benin next month.

This follows Flames assistant coach Jack Chamangwana’s revelation that they want to include defender Miracle Gabeya, midfielder Ernest Tambe and striker Chawanangwa Kaonga in the squad.

Mtawali said this would impact the Junior Flames’ preparations for the 2015 Africa Youth Championship final round qualifier against Zambia in August.

Chamangwana said they feel the three can ably compete for places in the senior team considering their recent performance in the Under-20 team.

“We are planning to call quite a number of players such as Miracle, Tambe and Chawanangwa so that they should be understudying senior players, but if they make the grade, then yes, they will be considered to play,” said Chamangwana.

However, Mtawali said his major concern is that the three players’ inclusion would affect their focus on the last hurdle against Zambia.

“The thing is it’s all about national service, but much as we would all want both teams to do well, it has to be borne in mind that these are just upcoming players and perhaps we should not subject them to too much pressure. We have one more hurdle to clear against Zambia before we can qualify for Senegal,” said Mtawali.

He also stressed that he has high respect for both Young Chimodzi and Chamangwana whom he described as his mentors and seniors, “but hopefully on this one, they will consider my points.”

However, Chamangwana argued that there are a lot of players who made national team debuts before they turned 20, citing himself as an example.

“There are quite a lot of players such as Pele, [Diego] Maradona and even Ernest himself. So, I think it’s more about having the heart,” said Chamangwana.

The Flames legend also said the others that are being considered for the senior team are current Super League leading scorer Callisto Kalinda and his Mafco FC teammates Richard Mbulu and Zasher Nong’oneza, defenders Sankhani Mkandawire (Big Bullets) and Emmanuel Zoya of Civo United.

“By the way, there has been a lot of talk about the exclusion of Callisto, but he is not a new player.