{"id":3193,"date":"2022-02-06T16:19:40","date_gmt":"2022-02-06T16:19:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/?p=3193"},"modified":"2022-12-30T20:34:16","modified_gmt":"2022-12-30T20:34:16","slug":"the-chitalu-effect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/2022\/02\/06\/the-chitalu-effect\/","title":{"rendered":"The Chitalu Effect"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Godfrey
Godfrey Chitalu<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (February 6th<\/sup> 2022<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Africa\u2019s Legend<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

50 years ago African football history was made. A hat-trick of African Cup of Champions Clubs records was set in Ndola\u2019s sadly defunct Dag Hammarskj\u00f6ld Stadium. Africa\u2019s Goal King Godfrey Chitalu began his wonder year, perhaps the greatest in top football history, began in this preliminary round tie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kabwe Warriors beat Lesotho\u2019s champions, Majantja, 11-2 on aggregate. Chtalu scored both goals in Maseru\u2019s National Stadium in the 2-2 draw in the first leg on January 23rd<\/sup> 1972. Lesotho\u2019s finest arrived in Lusaka, expecting the tie to be held there, but confident that they could get the result that they were after.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The remains of the Dag Hammarskj\u00f6ld Stadium <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Instead, they were sent to Zambia\u2019s fortress and dismantled 9-0. Majantja\u2019s goalkeeper, Lebohang Nteko recalled the events of that memorable night for me exclusively. He says they had a plan \u2013 mark Chitalu out of the game, but they found that Chitalu liked man-marking; thrived on it in fact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Wonder Year Begins<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two weeks earlier Majantja held Kabwe Warriors, also making their first appearance in Africa\u2019s top competition for clubs, 2-2. Before that match they hadn\u2019t heard of Godfrey Chitalu. Even now 50 years on people wax lyrical about Chitalu. \u201cThe second goal was special,\u201d Nteko said. The Black Cat was impressed and later asked Chitalu about it. Africa\u2019s Goal King packed a hard shot. Nteko says his defenders ducked out of the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Richard Stephenson and Abram Nkole<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Chitalu\u2019s teammate, Richard Stephenson, explained the magnificent goal. Majantja had just taken the lead for the second time. Chitalu received the ball near the half-way line, carved his way through the defence and scored from near the penalty area. It was one of the great goals in the competition\u2019s history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nteko later got the answers he wanted from Chitalu on his accuracy. He said that Chitalu told him he would practice and practice on his own after training aiming at the stantion until he could hit it at will. Now, Lesotho knew who Godfrey Chitalu was. Before long Africa would too. Exactly, 50 years ago, weighed down by soaking shirts Majantja was dismantled. Sandford Mvula and Boniface Simutowe scored a goal apiece. Chitalu bagged the other seven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Lebohang Nteko<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

According to Nteko up to three man-markers were assigned to stop Chitalu as he proved too hot to handle for just one. The player originally assigned the task became so demoralised that after a match in Botswana on the way back he retired. Chitallu netted a still standing African record of seven goals in a champions club match. His tally for the tie was nine, then a record \u2013 it may still be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Credit is Due<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bizarrely, Kabwe Warriors, 9-0 is credited in an article on Cafonline, but Chitalu\u2019s records have not been credited. The official match reports seem to have gone missing, probably in a disaster at CAF\u2019s office in Egypt in the early 1980s, but media reports and the recollections of players leave no doubt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chitalu has an unexpected champion. \u201cThey are his records,\u201d Nteko told me. \u201cHe should be credited with them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Fanny Chanda, Chitalu’s older sister<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Also Fanny Chanda, Chitalu\u2019s older sister appealed to CAF in Bemba to credit Chitalu\u2019s African Cup of Champions Clubs records.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (February 6th 2022 Africa\u2019s Legend 50 years ago African football history was made. A hat-trick of African Cup of Champions [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,16],"tags":[140,120,174,25,171,173,172,170],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3193"}],"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=3193"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3526,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3193\/revisions\/3526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}