WHY DID AN AFRICAN FOOTBALL GIANT HAVE SO FEW ZAMBIAN INTERNATIONALS? A few months back I had an interesting conversation with a Zambian football fan who has followed Zambian football for quite some time. He posed an interesting question to me. Why do You think Nkana had so few Zambian Internationals when they were a force in Zambian and African Football? I decided to research the subject and the results were quite interesting. We have to start from the very beginning. Nkana FC were formed in 1933 and Nkanas first notable player was Fred Mwila Senior who featured for Nkana in the 1960s and 1970s. Fred Mwila would become Zambias first player in England and Europe when he and another Zambian joined Aston Villa in 1969. He also played for Americas Atlanta Chefs in 1967 alongside South African great Kaizer Motaung. At Nkana though he helped the team win its first cup in 1964 when he led the team to the BP Top 8 Cup. Mwila was also one of the Zambia National Teams best players but shockingly retired from International in 1972 at the age of 24 and said he preferred to play for Nkana FC. The Next big star to play for Nkana was Zambias forth highest scorer Bernard Bomber Chanda who played for Nkana between 1974 and 1981. He arrived at Nkana in 1974 as hot National Team property after helping Zambia beat West African Giants Nigeria 5-1 at home in a 1973 AFCON qualifier, Zambia lost 3-2 in Lagos but ultimately qualified for its first AFCON. Chanda would then score an impressive hatrick at the AFCON semi finals against Congo Brazaville as Zambia won 3-2 to reach the AFCON finals on its first try. After AFCON 1974 he moved from Mufulira Wanderers to Nkana in a controversial transfer that became a record fee of K4,000 ( Now K24,000 or $4,000) Chanda then helped Nkana FC win its third Cup trophy ( Chibuku Cup) when he scored a Hatrick in a thrilling game against his former club and the then Zambian giants Mufulira Wanderers in a match that ended 4-3 He was topscorer of the Zambian League on a number of occasions and had a fierce rivalry with the current Africa National Team Topscorer of All Time Godfrey Chitalu. Chanda averaged 30 goals a season and in some seasons would reach 42. After 1974 he had limited gametime at the National team as Chitalu became Zambias Top Striker. Chanda still managed to score 28 goals for the National team and is number 4 in the alltime Zambia National team Topscorer rankings. Chanda quit the Zambia National team in 1980 after Nkana suspended him for featuring for the National team. Nkana would only become a force in 1982 when the team won the league for the first time and went on to make in mark in African Club football. From 1982 to 1994 Nkana FC reached 1 African Club Final, 5 Semi finals and 4 Quarter Finals. Losing only 14 out of 63 matches. Nkana FC had a talented squad which spread fear against the biggest African Clubs. Names like Eston Mulenga, Golden Kazika, Jericho Shinde, Fighton Simukonda, Micheal Chabala, Kenneth Malitoli, Kapambwe Mulenga, Beston Chambeshi and many more where well known around the african continent. Strangely enough though while Nkana was a giant in Africa few of its players featured for the Zambia National Team. One classic example of this was Micheal Chabala. A player who performed wonders at Nkana but rarely received a National team callup. Then in 1985 in a Crucial World Cup qualifier against Cameroun at home Chabala was a suprise inclusion in the starting lineup and scored a hatrick in an 11th minute blitz that propelled Zambia to a 4-1 win. He was then voted the 9th best African Footballer in 1985. After his exploits Chabala still struggled to be a regular though he made it to AFCON 1986 where he played some matches. Almost no Nkana player was prominent in the National team for a longtime. The most prominent being hard nuts defender Estone Yellow Man Mulenga who played for Green Buffalos when he featured for Zambia at the Seoul Olympics in 1988. Shortly after that Yellow man joined Nkana FC. Aside from him Nkana players were hardly first team players at the National team despite the teams dominance. Of the few who were Kenneth Malitoli who is said by some to be Nkanas all time Topscorer (no information exists on this) was topscorer in the league in 1989,1990 and 1991 and still was not even among the Zambia National Teams first choice strikers. Malitoli only became prominent after the Zambia National team perished off the Gabon coast in 1993. Malitolli had then since left Nkana and had been the Topscorer in the Tunisian league with Esperance for two years. With these facts, a lot of questions are asked on why Nkana players saw little game time. Some answers are the following. - Nkana FCs constant withdrawal of its players in the 1960s, and 1970s may have set a bad precedent which made administators not pick on Nkana players as first options. - Nkana won few Cups in the 1980s (5) and Cup competitions was said to be what selectors gauged National team players on as they were high pressure games and more players from Successful Cup sides like Mufulira Wanderers (8) and Kabwe Warriors were picked. - Nkana FC had few coaches involved in the National team in the 80s and some coaches were said to be biased and chose players from the teams they had coached or played for. - The quality of players in Zambian football meant that competition for places was always stiff and Nkana players may have been the best at their clubs but not at the National team. We can all agree that teams that do well at Continental football ( Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Al Ahly) usually make the backbone of their National teams. Its not known why this was never done with Nkana players. All we can do is speculate.
Posted on: Sat, 13 Sep 2014 07:07:02 +0000
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