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Sunzu plays for TP Mazembe in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the club said on its website that a three-million-pound deal had been agreed pending the successful completion of formalities.
Scorer of the winning penalty when Zambia shocked Ivory Coast 8-7 in a shootout to win the 2012 Africa Cup, Sunzu is due in South Africa on Saturday, two days before the defending champions face Ethiopia in the opening round.
He was outstanding when the Chipolopolo (Copper Bullets) were held 0-0 at home by Norway last Saturday to complete a winless five-match build-up to the Cup of Nations.
Zambia say they are happy with the opportunity for their key defender Sunzu to go to Reading this week, even though he is a key component of their squad for the Nations Cup finals.
The centre back travelled to London at the weekend for a trial with the Premier League strugglers with the blessing of his football association, a week before his side begin their defence of the African title at the tournament in South Africa.
“The Zambia national team will always be there but opportunities like this do not come around often in a player’s career so we were happy to let him go,” said Football Association of Zambia president Kalusha Bwalya, himself a former professional in Belgium, the Netherlands and Mexico.
“We have agreed with Reading, his club TP Mazembe and ourselves that he takes up this chance. Reading were quite insistent on seeing him so it is a good sign,” he said yesterday.
“Ultimately it is advantageous to our team to have players from clubs at the highest level.”
Bwalya said it had been agreed that Sunzu would travel to South Africa by Friday.
“He will have enough time to have recovered from the journey by the time we play our first game.”
Sunzu’s long journey mirrors that of Burkina Faso winger Jonathan Pitroipa who has left his team’s Nations Cup training camp to return to France to try to help Stade Rennes reach the French League Cup final.
Pitroipa is due to fly to South Africa, where Burkina Faso have been drawn in the same group as Zambia, tomorrow after today’s semi-final against Montpellier.
Zambia, who have arrived at their base in Nelspruit, open the defence of their Nations Cup title against Ethiopia on Monday.
The 23-year-old Sunzu played every match of Zambia’s successful run at the last finals in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon 12 months ago, converting the winning kick in the post-final penalty shootout that won his country their first Nations Cup title.
Meanwhile, South Africa’s Bafana Bafana players will earn over R1 million each, should they lift the 2013 African Cup of Nations trophy!
National team players, the coaching staff and South African Football Association management have been in negotiations on the matter of win bonuses.
Traditionally quite a sticky area between all the parties and sources have confirmed that players and management came to an amicable agreement on their financial rewards for participating in the tournament.
Exact figures, which we are currently verifying, will be made public today, but it can be confirmed that the agreement is a first for the national team and it’s broken up into three potential bonus stages.
Players will receive a bonus if they advance through the group stage, and have agreed to pocket nothing should they fail in this task!
Another bonus will be paid out should the team win the quarter-final, but they have agreed to skip another bonus for the semi-final stage!
Players have the chance to cash in on a huge third bonus, however, should they go on to win the tournament, equalling six figures in total per player!
This is one of the first times ever that players, the technical team and management are said to have been happy with the way negotiations were handled, a very good sign going into the tournament, and is a good indication of the spirit and determination in the camp! — Supersport.com
Online Reporter
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