Godfery “Ucar” Chitalu, Zambia’s top goal scorer

Mon, 03 Apr 2017 12:56:32 +0000

… the only Zambian footballer to have scored 107 goals in one season

GODFFREY “Ucar” Chitalu will rest in the annals of Zambian soccer history as one of the greatest football legends and a gallant soldier who led his charges to the blink of a maiden World Cup qualification when fate showed its ugly face.

While his footballing exploits underlined and shaped who he was to become in life, Chitalu was born a multi-talented child who was not only a football player but also a boxer, though his boxing talent was overshadowed by his main talent; scoring goals.

Chitalu was born on October 22, 1947 in Mikomfwa, Luanshya on the Copperbelt Province and traced his footballing career from the dusty streets of this notorious neighbourhood which was known for various vices. However, Chitalu found pride in kicking the “Chimpombwa”, a ball made out of plastics just like any other child of his age who took to the dusty streets every day to showcase their skills on the ball while barefooted and probably without tops.

It was this harsh, yet humble beginning that inculcated the “never-say-die” spirit in Chitalu which he used both as a player and later as coach of the famous KK 11 national team that earned him the title “Ucar” derived from the Ucar batteries which were believed to be the strongest at the time.

As an old adage goes, “a chick that is going to be a cock is spotted on the day it is hatched”, Chitalu caught the eyes of most soccer enthusiasts at a very tender age and it came as no surprise when he was identified as Zambia’s future star at Mikomfwa primary school by a recreation officer Benny Evans when he was only 10.

Evans invited the talented boy to Fisansa youth club for trials after which he started playing for the team as a centre-forward. Even when the competition in the team was stiff, he showed character which earned him a place in the U-15 district team which travelled to Bulawayo with the squad in 1958 as a reserve player.

In 1959, he got a transfer to Kawama School in Kitwe where he joined Kwacha Community Centre team which he helped retain the district championship for three years.

In 1962, he completed his primary education and left Kitwe for Chingola where he enrolled at Mushishima secondary school and joined Kitwe United in 1964. He spent much of time in his first season at Kitwe United with the reserves and was only promoted to the senior team towards the end of the season and scored on his debut against Rhokana United as his versatility, hunger for goals and his dribbling abilities cemented his position in the team and was a marvel to watch in his shirt number 10. In June 1967, Chitalu almost leaped into professional football but missed an opportunity to sign for Cardiff City when Zambia played three exhibition matches but the deal never materialised.

On 8 July 1967, he made the headlines for all the wrong reasons after he vehemently refused to leave the pitch after being red-carded in a league match against City of Lusaka at Woodlands Stadium.

After committing a foul, he lied to the referee that his name was Denis Law and not Godfrey Chitalu and this earned him matching orders but in a dramatic turn of events, he refused to leave the pitch and had to be pleaded and escorted off the field of play by a Kitwe United official.

As he was already on a warning for bad behaviour, the disciplinary committee of the Zambian Football Federation came down hard on him and suspended him for the rest of the season for giving the referee a false name.

As a precautionary motive, Kitwe United made him captain of the side the following season to enable learn to control his temper. This made him the youngest captain in the first division and the club’s decision seemed to pay dividends as Chitalu’s discipline record improved.

That same year, he scored 81 goals for club and country to win the inaugural footballer of the year and top scorer awards with Kitwe United finishing fourth on the table and further guided his team to the final of the Castle Cup which they lost to Mufulira Wanderers 2–1.

However, in June 1969, Chitalu was in trouble again with the authorities where he was fined and suspended for six weeks after being sent off in an exhibition game between Zambia and Cardiff City, for hacking Cardiff defender Brian Harris.

Four months later, he was suspended for six months for leaving the national team’s training camp without permission, despite his explanation that he was unwell and had gone to seek treatment from his doctor in Luanshya.

Chitalu returned to action in 1970 after serving five months and missing the first month of league games. He managed to stay out of trouble and won the Chibuku Cup with Kitwe United in a 1–0 victory over Kabwe Warriors in Kitwe.

In 1971, Chitalu joined Kabwe Warriors and scored a hat-trick against Kalulushi Modern Stars on his debut. It was in this year that the “Ucar” nickname was coined after the long-lasting Ucar batteries manufactured by Union Carbide. He won the league and Chibuku Cup double in his first season at Kabwe Warriors and ended the year as top scorer with 51 goals for club and country.

Chitalu kicked off the 1972 season by scoring a brace when Warriors drew 2–2 with Majantja FC in Maseru in the African Cup of Champions Clubs on 23 January 1972. He followed this up with a lesson in clinical finishing, scoring seven goals when Warriors overwhelmed the Sothos 9–0 in the second leg on 6 February 1972 at Dag Hammarskjöld Stadium in Ndola.

He scored a hat-trick when Warriors beat Maseru United 7–1 in an international friendly at the same venue in March and 4 goals in a 14–2 thrashing of Norco Rangers in a Chibuku Cup first round match to pull away from the rest of the field. He was also on target for Zambia in an international friendly against Sheffield United in May in the same year.

When Zambia met Lesotho in a FIFA World Cup qualification game in June, he struck twice in a 6–1 victory and was also on the score-sheet in friendly matches against Union Española of Chile.

Chitalu scored a brace when he captained the All Stars to a 4–3 victory against The Rest on 14 August, taking him to 71 goals for the season. He scored twice in the Zambian Challenge Cup final when Warriors beat Ndola United 3–1 and scored in another final two weeks later, this time in the 5–3 defeat of Rhokana United in the Chibuku Cup final.

In the process, he surpassed his own record of 81 goals that he had set as the inaugural winner of the Top Scorer awards back in 1968.

At the end of October, Chitalu had amassed 92 goals and went on to score in 17 consecutive matches for Warriors, including two when they were knocked out of the African Cup of Champions Clubs 9–3 on aggregate by Ghana’s Hearts of Oak, five against Buseko FC in a Chibuku Cup tie, five against Roan in a Castle Cup semi-final and seven against Mufulira Wanderers in two league games including four in a 5–1 demolition at Shinde Stadium.

He scored in yet another cup final when Kabwe Warriors crushed his old club Kitwe United 6–1 in November to lift the Castle Cup, with Chitalu grabbing a hat-trick and taking his tally for the season to 99 goals in a 9–2 whipping of City of Lusaka and only needed one more to reach the magical figure of one hundred goals.

The hundredth goal soon came in a 4–2 victory in a league game against Kalulushi Modern Stars at the Independence Stadium in Kalulushi, when he scored a hat-trick.

At the end of the season Kabwe Warriors had swept all the silverware on offer, a haul which included the footballer of the year and top scorer awards for Chitalu who attributed his success to the good support of his teammates.

For his remarkable achievement, Chitalu received a special yellow ball from sponsors Rothmans International which had his name and number of goals inscribed on it.

On 25 May 1981, Chitalu was bestowed with the Insignia of Honour by Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda for his contribution to Zambian football. Afterwards, he said,

“Zambia will bring home the World Cup one day or at least a continental one. But we must accept that these things might take a life-time. However, it is worth the wait” and indeed it was worth the wait as Zambia won the AFCON in 2012.

Chitalu, then as national team coach, perished with seventeen other players off the coast of the Indian Ocean on 27 April 1993 on their way to Senegal for the first of their 1994 FIFA World Cup qualification games in the group stage when the plane they were in developed a fault and crushed in the ocean.