{"id":2790,"date":"2021-09-01T18:07:29","date_gmt":"2021-09-01T17:07:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/?p=2790"},"modified":"2021-10-28T17:44:05","modified_gmt":"2021-10-28T16:44:05","slug":"ackim-musenge-the-minister-of-the-midfields-tribute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/2021\/09\/01\/ackim-musenge-the-minister-of-the-midfields-tribute\/","title":{"rendered":"Ackim Musenge \u2013 The Minister of the Midfield\u2019s Tribute"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By Satish Sekar \u00a9 satish Sekar (September 1st<\/sup> 2021)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Musenge \u2013 One of the Best Ever\u2019 : Simulambo<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following a career-shortening foul, the elegant Mufulira Wanderers and KK11 defender Ackim Musenge was left to recuperate. He was never the same player again. The Minister of the Midfield,\u2019 Jani Simulambo had taken over the captaincy from Musenge \u2013 he witnessed the challenge that destroyed his former captain, Musenge\u2019s career. It had an effect on him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThank you very much for the privilege and honour for me to talk about Ackim Musenge,\u201d Simulambo said. \u201cI thank the Almighty God for keeping me alive to be able to answer the questions you\u2019ll be asking me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAckim Musenge was a fantastic<\/em> player. We were together, Zambia Schools, 1970, 1971, until we graduated into the senior team. 1973, 1974, we were together in Egypt, Cairo, at the 9th<\/sup> Africa Cup of Nations soccer tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAckim was a fantastic soccer player \u2013 one of the best players Zambia has ever produced.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Humble Role Model<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simulambo learned a great deal from Musenge about captaincy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI learned quite a lot of things from Ackim\u201d Simulambo said. \u201cOne of them is humility. He was very humble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn fact, even today I\u2019m sure he is still humble because he is still alive. Ackim was humble on the pitch, off the pitch. He was wonderful. No wonder he was even captain at Mighty Mufulira Wanderers Football Club.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat is one of the qualities I learned from him and I took into my captaincy, which helped me a great deal. He was very, very disciplined and I\u2019m sure even today, he is still the same disciplined Ackim Musenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wrecked<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On November 6th<\/sup> 1979, while captaining Zambia at the (Council of East and Central African Football Associations) CECAFA Cup in Kenya Ackim Musenge was the victim of an appalling challenge which broke his leg. He was never the same player again. Attempted comebacks failed. Musenge was forced to end his playing career in 1981.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI remember it happened in Nairobi, Kenya,\u201d Simulambo said. \u201cIt was during the East and Central Africa tournament, which we used to have every one year, or two years. It was a wonderful tournament to promote peace and unity in the region, because soccer, as you know very well, has the largest following in the whole<\/em> world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSoccer is number one, and wherever soccer is played, people enjoy themselves to watch this beautiful game, which the British developed so much and developed from the Chinese and when they did so, they even called it a gentleman\u2019s game.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ball \u2013 Kick the Ball!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though it provided him with the opportunity to captain his country, the Minister of the Midfield remains very upset by that tackle over forty years later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEven today in England, they still have that prestige about the game of football, so in this match \u2013 it was during the first half and Ackim \u2013 it was a 50\/50 ball, and Ackim was going for the ball, but this Tanzanian was going for his shin-bone and he broke his shin-bone,\u201d Simulambo explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still Upset<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why the British call the game of football, foot-ball<\/em>, meaning you must kick the ball,\u201d Simulambo says. \u201cDon\u2019t kick the opponent\u2019s shin or the knee, or thigh, or don\u2019t kick his chongwe, whatever chongwe means \u2013 don\u2019t kick his chongwe. Just kick the ball, so that tackle was really \u2013 in fact, it was a criminal offence<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat player was supposed to be arrested because he ruined the career of Ackim Musenge, one of the best players in Zambia. Now, he couldn\u2019t play anymore. That was terrible. All of us were shaken<\/em> by that tackle. Both Tanzanians, even Zambians, even the thousands of spectators who were watching the match, they were not pleased at all, so I remember that tackle very, very well and I\u2019m very upset with that player who tackled Ackim Musenge like that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ackim Musenge never recovered from that tackle. He attempted comeback but suffered more injuries and operations. The classy captain and defensive maestro hung up his boots in 1981 \u2013 he should have had a few more years in him. Both Simulambo and Musenge became Life Members of FAZ (the Football Association of Zambia) earlier this year \u2013 both had experienced a long wait.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Satish Sekar \u00a9 satish Sekar (September 1st 2021) \u2018Musenge \u2013 One of the Best Ever\u2019 : Simulambo Following a career-shortening foul, the elegant Mufulira Wanderers [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2790"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2790"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2820,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2790\/revisions\/2820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}