EVERY CHAMPION HAS TASTED FAILURE, LET US REBUILD AND CONQUER AGAIN

The 2022/23 MTN Super League curtains have finally been drawn to a close after an exhilarating campaign.

We have made it to the end of the season, thanks to the consistent financial and material support from our two valued sponsors, ZESCO Limited, the parent company and primary benefactor and of course Atlas Mara who continues to be an all-weather partner in the growth of ZESCO United Football Club.

To the teams under the umbrella of ZESCO United, those being, the premier league team, ZESCO Ndola Girls Team and Malaiti Rangers, you showed up for each game every week and did the best you could, we soldier on!

Special tribute to our fans and supporters who stood by the team in good and not so good times. This kind of committed support can only be repaid with better results going forward.

Eleven months ago, we set out on a mission to attain two strategic objectives and those being winning the league title and securing a place in next season’s CAF Champions League.

Unfortunately, we fail short of meeting both set targets ending the league season at an unusual third position on the log. A lesson from this is that even a champion will from time to time taste failure. Bitter as failure may be, there is wisdom and courage in picking up the lessons, trying again until you conquer, that is the way of champions.  

While some may argue that the starting may not always define one’s ending, in our case the shaky start to the season left us hanging in twelfth position by mid-season, a situation that made our way to the top of the table slightly harder than usual. We dropped way too many points, and even at the point where we gained some momentum, the results were a mixed bag and winning rather too inconsistent to get us and maintain us at the top.

It is however, worth acknowledging that despite the unique challenges we faced in the first half of the season, the new technical bench led by Head Coach, George Lwandamina and the reinforced team made some strides to turn around the team’s fortunes.

At some point during the season, a decent finish looked elusive, however, we launched ourselves from the deepest valley of the league table to within earshot of the top two team’s success.

Today we can gleefully look at the league table because it is a reminder of how far we had fallen and how we courageously crawled our way back within the top four.

It is this level of tenacity, unity of purpose, and the unflinching desire to be at the summit of the league in the last four months of the campaign which gives us high hopes of what to expect next season.

May I take this opportunity to congratulate our club technical bench and players for a job well done.

I wish to further inform all our stakeholders, especially our devoted fans that ZESCO United management has taken note of the challenges that frustrated us from achieving our goals.

We all know what ZESCO United means to this country. The status the club carries both at the national and continental level is unmatched at least in the last two decades. As such, club management is resolved to ensure that ZESCO United rekindles its glorious years.

In conclusion, I wish to take this opportunity to congratulate our colleagues, Power Dynamos for emerging league champions. This is a well-deserved achievement after almost 13 years of waiting. The new comers MUZA equally showed us that you can rise and rise until you get to where you set your eyes.

As they say – eyes on the ball, we are coming back much stronger in the coming season.

Maxwell Saya

ZESCO United FC Chairman