Godfrey Chitalu was a Zambian

Zambia

Zambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....

 footballer who is regarded as the greatest Zambian player ever and is also believed to hold the national team goal-scoring record. Nicknamed ‘Ucar,’ Chitalu, was a forceful and often temperamental target man who was Zambian footballer of the year a record four times and in 1972 rewrote the record books by scoring 107 goals in all competitions in a single season.

Upon retirement, Chitalu took to coaching and was in charge of the Zambia national team when the entire squad perished in a plane crash off the coast of Gabon

Gabon

Gabon , officially the Gabonese Republic is a state in west central Africa sharing borders with Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, and with the Republic of the Congo curving around the east and south. The Gulf of Guinea, an arm of the Atlantic Ocean is to the west...

 on April 27, 1993.

Playing career

Chitalu was born in the North Rhodesian Copperbelt town of Luanshya

Luanshya

Luanshya is a town in Zambia, in the Copperbelt Province near Ndola. It has a population of 117,579 .Luanshya was founded in the early part of the 20th century after a prospector/explorer, William Collier, shot and killed a Roan Antelope on the banks of the Luanshya River, discovering a copper...

 in a rough neighbourhood called Mikomfwa where youths got involved in various vices besides playing barefoot football. It is believed that these early experiences helped shape his character.

He first tried his luck with local team Roan United in the mid-1960s but was ignored by the coaches and only got as far as the reserves. Frustrated, he packed his bags and headed for the neighbouring town of Kitwe

Kitwe

Kitwe is the second largest city in terms of size and population in Zambia. With a population of 547,700 Kitwe is one of the most developed commercial and industrial areas in the nation, alongside Ndola and Lusaka...

 where he joined Kitwe United in 1967 and soon started playing regularly for the team, quickly became a crowd favourite at Buchi stadium. As much as he was an exciting striker with an eye for goal, Chitalu’s temperament and disciplinary record left much to be desired. The young striker did all sorts of appalling things on the pitch – arguing with referees, punching and head-butting opponents (and at times erring teammates), as well as spitting and hurling insults at them. As a result, he was often in bad books with football authorities, earning himself a reputation as ‘the bad boy of Zambian football.’ In one particular incident, he was shown a red card by the late referee Arthur Davies for giving him a false name during a booking. The name? Former Manchester United and Scotland striker Denis Law’s.

Chitalu earned a call-up to the national team although the coaches did not make him their preferred striker as he was regarded as being too individualistic though his talent could not be ignored for long as he won the inaugural ‘Footballer of the Year’ award in 1968 though his disciplinary problems were still very much around for he was banned for about half of the season in 1969 and for a while, he considered quitting football. He instead overcame his demons and in 1970 moved to Kabwe Warriors for a then record fee in Zambian football where his discipline improved as did his style of play and at the end of the year he scooped his second ‘Footballer of the Year’ award.

In 1972 Warriors swept all the silverware on offer and Chitalu scored an outrageous 107 goals in all competitions – a record that still stands to this day. At the time, Union Carbide, the manufacturer of UCAR batteries was sponsoring football commentaries on radio and renowned Zambian football commentator Dennis Liwewe would go “…Godfrey Chitalu, super charged like a UCAR battery…” and the nickname of Ucar was born.

At his peak many defenders confessed that he was a difficult customer to handle as he not only used his skills but also had a way of psyching out his markers by verbal attacks and bragging. Despite his goal-scoring reputation, he was still not the first choice striker for Zambia, falling behind Bernard ‘Bomber’ Chanda and Simon ‘Kaodi’ Kaushi in the pecking order when Ante Buselic was in charge of the national team from 1971 to 1976.

Chitalu featured for Zambia at the 1974 Africa Cup of Nations and scored a goal in Zambia’s 3-1 loss to Egypt. Zambia reached the final with Chanda and Kaushi grabbing the headlines where they lost to Zaire after a replay. After the Nations Cup, Chitalu was dropped from the national team but he made a comeback a year and a half later after Lieutenant Colonel Brightwell Banda took charge of the team, recalling the goal king for a crucial World Cup

FIFA World Cup

The FIFA World Cup, often simply the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association , the sport's global governing body...

 tie against Uganda on February 27, 1977 in Ndola. Chitalu, who was turning 30 that year returned the favour by firing a 2 goal salvo to eliminate Uganda from the World Cup race.

5 months later Chitalu repeated the feat on June 26, 1977 in a Nations Cup Qualifier against Algeria with Zambia trailing 2-0 from the first leg in Algiers. He scored a brilliant brace to force a 2-2 draw and Zambia prevailed 5-4 on spot kicks. In the month when he turned 30, Chitalu scored 5 goals in the East & Central Africa Challenge Cup which Zambia lost in the final to Uganda on penalties. His efforts were rewarded at the end of the year with the Sportsman of the Year award although he narrowly missed out on the Footballer of the Year award.

The following year, Chitalu graced his second Nations Cup but Zambia lost him in the first game to injury and were eliminated in the 1st round of the tournament. Later in the year, he made another impression in the East and Central Africa Challenge Cup in Malawi where he finished top scorer with 11 goals, including 4 in a 9-0 thrashing of Kenya. Zambia lost to Malawi 3-2 in the final.

Chitalu became the first player to win the Footballer of the Year award in two consecutive seasons in 1978-79 and the following year, he represented Zambia at the Moscow Olympic games after Egypt withdrew for political reasons and Zambia were nominated to take their place. He was the oldest member of the team and he scored a goal against the mighty Soviet Union in a 3-1 defeat.

In 1981, Chitalu was bestowed with the Order of Distinguished Service (ODS) Second Division by Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda

Kenneth Kaunda

Kenneth David Kaunda, known as KK, served as the first President of Zambia, from 1964 to 1991.-Early life:Kaunda was the youngest of eight children. He was born at Lubwa Mission in Chinsali, Northern Province of Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia...

 and that same year, commentator Dennis Liwewe released an LP entitled Godfrey Chitalu in his honour, featuring tribute songs and commentary excerpts of Chitalu’s goals which sold like hot cakes.

Chitalu’s image was also reproduced on boxes of Match Corporation matches and in 1982 the former ‘bad boy of Zambian soccer’ retired from active football but not before FIFA had awarded him with an ‘Achievement Recognition Award’ for the 107 goals he had scored in 1972.

In 2006, he was selected by CAF

Confederation of African Football

The Confederation of African Football is the administrative and controlling body for African association football.CAF represents the national football associations of Africa, runs continental, national, and club competitions, and controls the prize money, regulations and media rights to those...

 as one of the best 200 African football players of the last 50 years.

Coaching career

After his retirement, Chitalu went into private life for a while until he resurfaced in the mid-80s as Kabwe Warriors coach. In 1984 he received a life ban after allegedly punching referee Kabalamula Chayu during an abandoned league game which was later scrapped after an appeal. He led the team to the 1987 Zambian league championship and was appointed assistant to coach Samuel ‘Zoom’ Ndhlovu for the national team in the same year and was on the technical bench during Zambia’s 1988 Seoul Olympic Games exploits.

Disaster struck Kabwe Warriors when they were demoted from the top league in 1990 but Chitalu made sure that none of his established team members including Zambian internationals left the club, leading to a swift return to the Super League and he was subsequently crowned 1991 Coach of the Year.

Following Zambia’s surprise defeat to Madagascar

Madagascar

The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...

in a World Cup Qualifier in Antananarivo in December 1992, coach Ndhlovu was sacked and Chitalu became national team coach with Alex Chola as his assistant. The two put together an exciting team which was tipped to make it all the way to the 1994 World Cup but as fate would have it, Zambia’s incredible goal king perished along with the rest of the team off the Gabonese coast in the horrific air disaster. Chitalu had a record of 5 wins and 1 draw with 14 goals scored and 3 conceded.

Record Goal Scorer

While the exact number of goals scored by Chitalu in national colours is debatable, it would appear he holds the record for the highest number of internationals goals from the time Zambia got it’s independence in October 1964 to date.

Although records are sketchy, Chitalu is believed to have scored well in excess of fifty international goals.

Some of his goal scoring exploits include:

• 11 goals at CECAFA ’78 which is a CECAFA record.
• 45 goals in all competitions in 1969, 4th behind top goal scorer Robinson Zulu who had 64 goals
• 81 goals in all competitions in 1968 (including 11 for Zambia).

No other Zambian player has been known to have scored as many goals although Kalusha Bwalya’s claim to being the record goal scorer with 50 goals is yet to be substantiated.

Chitalu’s record number of goals in 107 included goals scored for the national team although it has not been backed up by official records due to poor record keeping by Zambian football authorities. As a result, this record is taken with a pinch of salt in other football circles. It is however not as far-fetched as it appears, considering that many strikers in Zambia during the period would score in excess of 50, as evidenced by Zulu’s 64 in 1969 and Chitalu himself with 81 goals in 1968.

Death - Gabon Disaster

On 28 February 1993, Zambia needing a win to qualify to the group stages in the World Cup Qualifying campaign swept aside Madagascar 3-1 in Lusaka with Chitalu as coach. The Zambians were then drawn in the same group as Morocco and Senegal and many felt the time had come for Zambia to qualify to the World Cup as they had a formidable team which had been together for a while, with coaching staff who seemed to inspire the players. On 10 April 1993, Zambia played out a goalless draw at home to Zimbabwe in an African Nations Cup qualifier. Two weeks later, the Zambians whacked Mauritius 3-0 in Port Louis.

From there, the team made its way to Senegal for the first of their World Cup qualifying games in the group stage. The team’s mode of transportation was a Zambia Airforce (ZAF) Buffalo plane and after refuelling in Libreville, the plane developed problems and plunged into the sea on 27 April 1993, killing all 30 people on board including FAZ president Michael Mwape and ZAF crew members. The entire nation was in shock and the scale of the tragedy only really sank in when 30 coffins carrying the remains of their beloved team were flown in for a state burial. The plane crash brought an untimely end to the career of not only Chitalu but a whole team of talented Zambian players and coaches.

External links

• Biography at Sports-reference.com