“I LIKE TO PLAY POSITIVE FOOTBALL”

In the first-ever press conference in Zambia, Avram Grant stated the reason why he chose Zambia as well as why Zambia chose him, the football he is associated with and many more

“First and foremost, I’m happy to be here, this is my first time in Zambia, I arrived here yesterday morning and they took me around to some wonderful places and this morning as well we took an hour just go walk around and appreciate this area. I looked forward to coming here and working, as you know I came here as a football coach and I think Zambia has the potential, we have set the targets for what we want to achieve and I’d like to thank the FAZ president and the committee for choosing me and gave me an opportunity to show my experience in order to take Zambian football forward, which I think Zambia deserves.”

Question: Did you receive any other offers from clubs or countries and why did you choose Zambia?

Avram Grant: The first answer is yes I got other offers but I was looking for the right challenge because I think the challenge here is big as well as the potential and I’m a man of challenges among many other things and that is the reason why I chose Zambia as well as why Zambia chose me. As you can see the junior national teams are improving a lot and I think now is the right time to build something for the present as well as the future, those are the things I like to do, so I came here for the challenge and I hope that when I leave, be it at the end of the 2 years or more, I’ll look around and say we did a good job and also left a foundation for the future.”

Question: Do you feel the pressure of Coaching a team that has failed to qualify for the last 3 AFCON tournaments?

Avram Grant: About the pressure, next year I will clock 50 years since I began coaching and I don’t know of a day when I never had pressure, I like this pressure and that is the reason why I like this job, I love coaching, I love to get results, I love to move the team forward but it’s with pressure because the game without pressure is not interesting for me, the pressure is high because we have to reach the targets with these 2 games in March and even beyond, so I like the pressure.

Asked what type of football he likes to play Avram Grant had this to say:

“I like to play positive football.”

More to follow……