Moses Sichone and Zambia’s enduring World Cup dream

Former Zambia football team defender-turned head coach, Moses Sichone, is haunted as he is motivated by the very same adversity that left permanent scars on him 21 years ago.

A recent conversation with him when he was based in Germany’s fourth largest city of Cologne could not have been complete if he did not discuss how a failed 2006 World Cup qualification campaign of the year still gives him nightmares.

FAZ CHIPOLOPOLO CORNER: Zambia Men’s National Team Assistant Coach Moses Sichone following proceedings at Nkoloma Stadium. Defending champions are Red Arrows currently lead Kansanshi Dynamos 2-0. pic.twitter.com/ZLzmnQ9VjA

— FAZ (@FAZFootball) September 4, 2022

Zambia were two games away from sealing qualification for the 2006 edition hosted by Germany. All they needed were six points, but all that evaporated into thin air after 1-0 and 4-1 defeats to Togo.

Chipolopolo finished in third place of group I with 19 points, four points behind Togo, then under the tutelage of Nigerian coach, Stephen Keshi, now deceased. The Eagles sealed their World Cup place.

For Sichone, this was a personal assault on his dream of playing for his home country, Zambia, in front of family and friends from his second home country, Germany.

Moses Sichone #BelaLiga pic.twitter.com/kcNZ3OzMI6

— Vertragsamateur Belamigović (@hannoderbus) February 22, 2023

“Since I was still playing in Germany, I was looking forward to it [the World Cup]. I felt very bad and I couldn’t eat. It still pains me because I retired from not being to the World Cup. This was a dream that was being taken away from me,” he told Pan-Africa Football recently.

Why Moses Sichone is still haunted by World Cup dream

The 48-year-old is still bitter even in retirement in Germany, but he has not given up on his dream. He failed to go to the World Cup as a player but now Sichone is determined to achieve such a mission in his capacity as a coach for Zambia.

Never mind that he has just started his coaching career with an under-17 German team, Vitoria Cologne, having successfully attained the UEFA A-Licence.

“I do have a UEFA A-Licence. I did the B Licence then after two years, I did the UEFA A Licence. It is every coach’s dream to be successful with a team. I have been looking forward to, one day, coaching the national team and probably, being the first coach to qualify my country, Zambia, for the World Cup,” Sichone said.

The closest Sichone came to coaching Chipolopolo was when he was hired as Zambia Football Association Technical Director. However, his tenure ran its course in 2018. Still the World Cup dream proved elusive.

In the absence of sound infrastructure and investment in youth football as was the case when he was growing up in the Copper Belt, Sichone felt his task was never going to be as successful as he hoped. But the dream he was born with on 31 May 1977 in Mufulira lives on.

Togo snatched his World Cup dream but he has never known the meaning of giving up because it is not in his DNA.

It was because of such a DNA that he pursued a career in football. Not even his mother could stop him from pursuing his football dream. He ended up leaving home at the tender age of 16-year-old to fulfil his football dream.

“My late mum never wanted me to play soccer. She wanted me to be a doctor. You know, parents have dreams for their children. When I turned 16 [years old], it was always a fight, so I moved out of home. Luckily, Chambeshi Blackburn provided me with an apartment. From there, I could go to school and practice football,” Sichone recalled.

A move to the top tier league’s Nchanga Rangers pushed Sichone even closer to his dream.

“While in Chingola, we won the Zambian league in 1999 with Nchanga Rangers. We then played in CAF [Cup Winners Cup] and we did quite well. I could see my life changing. I saw how sweet it could be if you were successful. Everything changed when I became a national team player. I was young and I could play for the under-20, under-23 and the senior team. My life changed. Suddenly, I kept enjoying it. Today, I don’t even regret [leaving home],” the man who was born in a family of seven children.

Selection into the national team afforded Sichone an opportunity to represent his country at the 1998 Africa Cup of Nations finals held in Burkina Faso.

At this tournament, the past met the present. When Egyptian football pharaoh, Hassan Hossam, started his swansong at the 1998 AFCON finals in Burkina Faso, little-known Sichone confirmed his arrival on the big platform of continental football.

Egypt won the championship. However, behind the scenes at a hotel in Ouagadougou something bigger was happening. A dream was born for Sichone.

How being with Zambia at the AFCON offered Sichone window of opportunity to Germany

“After the tournament, even though we didn’t do quite well, I put up a good performance. That was the same time FC Cologne were looking for a centre-back, so I got a chance. They invited me to Germany and did trials. I did the trials and got a two-year contract and that was in 1999,” he explained.

Andrew Sinkala i Moses Sichone czyli pierwsi Zambijczycy 🇿🇲 w Bundeslidze🇩🇪

Obaj trafili do Niemiec z Nchanga Rangers w sezonie 99/00. Andrew Sinkala przeszedł do Bayernu Monachium, w którym rozegrał 1 mecz. Sezon później był już w Köln, w którym dołączył do Mosesa Sichone. pic.twitter.com/HspWbxnysz

— Piłkarska Zambia (@PilkarskaZambia) February 26, 2024

Sichone had to adjust to life in Germany right from learning the German language.

“I was, by then, 22 years old. I couldn’t speak the language [German] and I was the second black player to play for FC Cologne. By then there was one black guy from Nigeria; a midfielder, at least, I had someone I could talk to in English,” he recalled.

Training under such a professional set up was exciting and challenging at the same time for the former Zambia national team captain.

“But all in all, coming to Europe is a dream of every young player because of, first of all, the facilities. It was a motivation for me to be training on soft training grounds. Each training game you are being watched by the fans and this motivated me somehow and at the end, it was up to me to say: ‘why am I here?’ I kept asking myself this question. I continued doing what I was doing when I was in Africa,” he added.

“You have to be fit, accurate in everything you are doing, think fast and adapt to the environment. It is all about discipline, hard work, focus and of course, determination.”

The defender joined Cologne when they were in Bundesliga II and the following season, they earned promotion to the top-tier league in the 2001 season rendering themselves as some sort of a yo-yo club.

The wing-back has fond memories of the sights and sounds that engulfed the streets of Cologne upon the team’s promotion.

“This was a great moment because after we managed to win the promotion, we had to celebrate with the fans. Cologne is one of the teams that has a lot of fans. They have crazy fans. They are crazy about the club and it doesn’t matter which league the team is playing in,” Sichone said.

According to Kicker magazine records, Sichone went on to make 83 appearances for Cologne in the Bundesliga and a further 126 appearances in Bundesliga II in a career that spanned six years.

During that time, he carved out a reputation as a “general” capable of playing in all defensive positions.

“They used me in all positions. They used to call me General. I played left-back, right-back and as a number 6 as an anchor man in midfield but not as a goalkeeper. That is the only position I never played in,” Sichone said.

In the 2005 season, Sichone ended his romance with Cologne as he signed for another second division side, Alemannia Aachen, playing them for three seasons.

The towering defender was on the move again, this time around he joined Offenbacher Kickers, then VfR Aalen the following season.

Sichone crossed the Germany borders for one but his last club called AEP Paphos FC in Cyprus, before returning to Germany to call it time on his hugely successful football adventure while playing for FC Carl Zeiss Jena in 2010.

During this time, all was not rosy with Sichone’s national team’s involvement back home.

Sichone and his Cologne team-mate and compatriot, Andrew Sinkala, went into self-imposed exile accusing the then coach Jan Brouwer and the FA of disrespecting foreign-based players.

Brouwer had accused the duo of “just fooling us, every time you call them to play, they refuse at the last minute.”

However, then newly-appointed Zambia coach, Patrick Phiri, convinced the foreign-based legion, including Sichone, to come out of retirement in 2003.

On his return after an 18-month absence, the BBC quoted Sichone saying: “I have always wanted to play for Zambia but I could not get along with the FA because of the way they have treated foreign-based players.”

During his career, Sichone was determined to prove his mother wrong that his choice of boots and not the stethoscope was not wrong after all. One day while back home in Zambia, Sichone had a pleasant surprise for his mother, now deceased.

“I asked my mum: ‘What is it that you wish I could do for you?’ So she said, ‘son, if you can build a house for me’. I then fulfilled her wish and she managed to stay in a house which I built for her before she died. My dad is still there and we communicate. I know it is not easy for him since mum left us. I just keep pushing him,” Sichone recalled.

The former Chipolopolo left-back spent the past three years serving as a faithful servant of former Chelsea FC coach Avram Grant, until he was sacked in October. Sichone did prove his mettle when he led Zambia in a caretaker capacity to the 2023 COSAFA Cup glory in South Africa.

That proved to be the perfect audition as he has now replaced his former boss Grant as Zambia coach. This job presents Sichone an opportunity to fulfill that enduring World Cup dream of 2005.