Zambia: Banda Delighted With Award

14 July 2011

KCM-FAZ 2010 Premier League player-of-the-year Jacob Banda has said he is delighted to have won the award as a goalkeeper saying it was not easy competing alongside the likes of Green Buffaloes midfielder Allan Mukuka and Power Dynamos player-marker Joseph Sitali.

The Zesco United goal minder said winning the award was a great motivation in his playing career. It would now inspire him to achieve his best both for his club and the national soccer team where he is an understudy to first choice net minder, Kennedy Mweene.

Banda said winning the award was not a personal effort, but a combined responsibility and thanked his teammates who ensured Zesco won the title as a group and that he was looking for more silverware at the international stage with his club.

Coach Fighton Simukonda, who won the coach-of-the-year-award for the second time said winning the award was a result of hard work.

Simukonda, who guided Zesco to league triumph despite getting eliminated from both the Orange CAF African Champions League and the Confederations Cup, said he felt great to win the award again, especially that he was the first person to grab the award when it was first introduced in 2005.

By then he was coach for Zanaco, a side he guided to back-to-back league titles before crossing over to Lusaka Dynamos and eventually, Zesco.

“It also feels great because I was the first person to win it when KCM started sponsoring the award. If you work hard these are the rewards. I did it through the results because the team was working hard,” Simukonda said.

Power Dynamos midfielder Kennedy Mudenda, the 2008 footballer-of-the-year, said he was humbled to be voted the most disciplined player in the league for the past season.

Mudenda, who has not permanently established himself as a first choice in the national team, said he would work hard and ensure he wins a first place start in the national team and would in the meantime help his club win the league.

Lewis Macha of Nchanga Rangers scooped the K10 million young player of the year crown fending off competition from Simon Silwamba of Zanaco and Chakwa Lungu of Zesco.

AllAfrica – All the Time