Category: Football

By Michael Kachitsa Godfrey Chitalu (1947–1993) was a Zambian former professional footballer who represented the Zambia national football team in international level from 1968 to 1980. During that time, he amassed 108 caps and scored 79 international goals making him the all-time record goalscorer for the Zambia national team, highest international goalscorer from an African nation and 4th-highest international goalscorer in history. Nicknamed ‘Ucar’ after the Ucar Batteries which were advertised as long lasting, he was an energetic presence upfront and a menace for many even skilled defenders because of his speed and stamina. There was a debate about the record for scoring the most goals in a year between Godfrey Chitalu and Lionel Messi. In 2012 Messi scored his 86th in that year which had meant he has surpassed Germany’s Gerd Mueller 40 years ago. But the Zambian Football Association claimed Godfrey Chitalu had scored 107 goals for club and country in 1972.

By Charles E Kachitsa Jnr The first thing to say is that it takes effort to get into the semi-final, but these four European teams have done it. RB (RasenBallsport) Leipzig RB Leipzig is a football team that is based in Germany. They participate in the Bundesliga – which they finished 3rd in – and they have also made it to the Semi-Finals of the UEFA Champions League where they will face Paris Saint-Germain F.C. (to see more about them go down) on Tuesday 18th August 2020 at 8pm BST. They were drawn in the Group G with the following teams: Olympique Lyonnais, S.L. Benfica, and Zenit Saint Petersburg. First they played Benfica in a 2-1 victory. Next it was Lyon and they lost 2-0. Zenit vs Leipzig and it was another 2-1 win. They played Zenit again as they won 2-0. It was Benfica but it was a 2-2 draw. The last match was against Lyon and they drew 2-2. The group stage was complete and Leipzig was 1st and through with Lyon. Next, they were drawn with Tottenham Hotspur in the Round of 16. The 1st leg finished as their Talisman, Timo Werner scored a penalty in the 58th minute. It was the 2nd leg and RB Leipzig had the time of their life as the got a      3-0 win with Marcel Sabitzer scoring two goals in eleven minutes and Emil Forsberg sealed a victory as they headed into the Quarter-Finals with a 4-0 aggregate. COVID-19 came but Football came back and it was Club de Atletico Madrid vs RasenBallsport Leipzig – with no 2nd leg. With Timo Werner no one knew what was going to happen but Dani Olmo scored. Joao Felix equalised with a penalty. Just a few minutes left and Tyler Adams scored to put RB Leipzig through to the Semi-Finals. Now it is Leipzig vs Paris SG on Tuesday 18th August 2020 at 8pm BST. Paris Saint-Germain F.C. This is a football team based in France and it is the most successful team in their country – winning every cup in France this season. They are facing RasenBallsport Leipzig (to see more about them go up) on Tuesday 18th August 2020 at 8pm BST. They were drawn in Group A with the following teams: Club Brugge, Galatasaray and record champions, Real Madrid C.F. They played the mighty Los Blancos and won 3-0. It was a    1-0 win against Galatasaray. After that, they won 5-0 against Club Brugge. The next game against them was a 1-0 victory. Los Blancos ruined their winning and clean sheet streak with a 2-2 draw. It was a 5-0 victory against Galatasaray for the last match. Paris SG came out of Group A 1st and unbeaten with Real Madrid coming 2nd. Paris SG were drawn against Dortmund. The 1st leg was 2-1 to Dortmund with the Prolific Finisher, Erling Braut Haaland, scoring two goals. The next game it was Paris who won 2-0 to win 3-2 on aggregate. It was Atalanta vs Paris SG with no 2nd leg. It was 1-0 to Atalanta at Half-Time but the Game Changer, Kylian Mbappe came on with Eric-Maxim Choupo-Moting. It was a 90th minute leveller by Marquinhos. 3 minutes of the 5 added minutes were played and Mbappe teed of Choupo-Moting to get a last minute winner. 2-1 to Paris SG and they face Leipzig on Tuesday 18th August 2020 at 8pm BST. Olympique Lyonnais This is another team based in France. They compete in Ligue 1 – where they finished 7th – and they have made it to the semi-finals of the UCL. They will face a team that has scored 39 goals and conceded 8 goals. That team is F.C Bayern München. The match will be on Wednesday 19th August 2020 at 8pm BST. This is another team that was drawn in Group G with the teams: RasenBallsport Leipzig,S.L Benficaand Zenit Saint Petersburg. First it was Lyon v Zenit and it ended 1-1. The next game was against Leipzig which they won 2-0. It was Benfica v Lyon as Benfica came out on top with a 2-1 victory. The reverse fixture was a win for Lyon. Next it was a trip to St. Petersburg as they lost 2-0. The last match was RB Leipzig vs Olym. Lyonnais and it was a 2-2 draw. They came 2nd in that group with RB Leipzig coming 1st. Next, they were drawn against Juventus – who argueably carried by Cristiano Ronaldo. The 1st leg we saw a shook Juventus as it ended 1-0 to Lyon. The next leg, Juventus won 2-1 but lost on away goals. They were drawn against Man. City – who just won 4-2 on aggregate against Los Blancos. There was no 2nd leg and Man. City were nearly shook to the core as Lyon got an impressive 3-1 win. They now face F.C Bayern München on Wednesday 19th August 2020 at 8pm BST. F.C Bayern München This is another team based in Germany. They are the most successful team in Germany and are looking to do the treble – having won the DFB Pokal and Bundesliga. They will face Olympique Lyonnais on Wednesday 19th August 2020 at 8pm BST. They were drawn in Group B with the following teams: Tottenham Hotspur, Olympiacos and Crvena Zvezda (known as Red Star Belgrade). Bayern v Belgrade 3-0. Tottenham was so nearly shook to the core with a 7-2 loss for them but a win for Bayern. Next, a close 3-2 win against Olympiacos. The reverse fixture had the same outcome but with a 2-0 victory instead. Belgrade v Bayern again but this time, a 6-0  win for Bayern. The last match was a 3-1 win against Spurs. Group B was torn apart by Bayern as they came out with 24 goals for and 5 goals against and 1st with all games won. They were drawn against a London team of Chelsea – they do very well against teams from London. The 1st leg

By Michael Kachitsa The world record for goals scored in senior football, which has stood steadfast ever since Arbroath thumped Bon Accord 36-0 in 1885, has been smashed by a team from Madagascar. Farcical scenes quicky led to a basketball score as league champions AS Adema won a match 149-0, more than quadrupling the existing record – and without gaining possession between the first goal and the 149th. Their opponents, Stade Olymique L’Emyrne, took complete control of the national league game, reducing Adema to the role of onlookers, as they deliberately plonked the ball in the back of their own net 149 times, in protest over a refereeing decision. The English Football Association believe that the 149-0 scoreline represents a new world record. “I certainly think it’s a world record,” said the FA’s historian David Barber. “I’ve heard of a local league game in Nottingham that finished 50-2 and there was a 43-0 in an Austrian regional game before the second world war – but nothing this big.” Radio Madagascar reported on Friday that SOE scored the own goals against Adema as a protest after their coach Ratsimandresy Ratsarazaka lost his temper with the referee. Adema’s players reportedly stood around looking bemused, doing nothing to stop the opposition from self-destructing. Strangely, SOE were no part-timers either – they were last year’s Malagasy champions who surprisingly won through to the second round of the African Champions League this season. The game was played on 31 October 2002.

By Michael Kachitsa Sheffield Football Club is founded on October 24th, by the pioneers, Nathaniel Creswick and William Prest, who wanted to build a community for the game of football. A game for young and old people alike to play in their free-time. The club’s committee decides to develop a new set of rules and laws for the game of football. In 1855, members of a Sheffield cricket club organised informal kick-abouts without any official rules. Subsequently, two members, Nathaniel Creswick and William Prest, formed the Sheffield Football Club. The inaugural meeting of the club took place on 24 October 1857 at Parkfield House in the suburb of Highfield in Sheffield. The original headquarters was a greenhouse on East Bank Road lent to them by Thomas Asline Ward, father of the first club president Frederick Ward, and the adjacent field was used as their first playing ground. Initially, Sheffield FC games were played among club members themselves and took the format of “Married v Singles” or “Professionals v the Rest”. Creswick and Prest were responsible for drawing up the club’s rules of play, which were decided upon at the club’s AGM on 21 October 1858, and published the following year.They were referred to as the Sheffield Rules, and were the first detailed set of rules of football to be published by a football club (as opposed to a school or university). At the time, before the formation of the Football Association (FA), many different kinds of football were popular in England. For example, each of the various public schools played football according to their own individual rules, and these varied widely. The Sheffield Rules were later adopted by the Sheffield Football Association when it was formed in 1867. Sheffield’s near neighbour, Hallam FC was formed in 1860 and in the same year the two clubs first met each other in a Local Derby which is still contested today. They became members of The Football Association on 30 November 1863 but continued to use their own set of rules. On 2 January 1865, the club played its first fixture outside Sheffield against Nottingham playing eighteen-a-side under Nottingham Rules.

Lionel Messi was born, 24 June 1987, in Rosario, Argentina to a working-class family. His father was a factory steel worker, and his mother a cleaner. He began playing from an early age, and his talent was soon apparent. However, at the age of 11, Messi was diagnosed with growth hormone deficiency (GHD). This was a condition that stunted growth and required expensive medical treatment, including the use of the drug Human growth hormone. His local club, River Plate were interested in signing Messi but didn’t want to pay for his medical treatment. However, Messi was given a trial with Barcelona, and coach Carles Rexach was impressed – offering Messi a contract (written on a paper napkin!) which included paying for Messi’s treatment in Spain. Messi moved to Barcelona with his father and became part of the prestigious FC Barcelona youth academy. Messi progressed through the ranks and was given his first appearance in the 2004/05 season becoming the youngest player to score a league goal. In 2006, Messi was part of the double winning team which won both La Liga (Spanish League) and Champions League. By next season, (2006-07) aged just 20, Messi was the first choice striker and an essential part of the Barcelona team – scoring 14 goals in 26 league games. In the 2009-10 season, Messi scored 47 goals in all competitions, equalling Ronaldo’s record total for Barcelona. As the seasons have progressed, Messi kept improving and breaking his own records. In the calendar year of 2012, he broke the all-time world record for most goals scored in a calendar year. His final total of goals in 2012 was 91 – beating the previous record of 85 by German Gerd Muller, and Pele’s milestone of 75 in 1958. Source-Biography Online

By Michael Kachitsa Kalusha Bwalya, the Zambia’s football player survived the terrible plane crash in Gabon in 1993, in which all the Zambia team lost its life. He after promised he would lead the team to soldier on and attain more glory. Kalusya led the Zambia team to reach their first victory in the African Cup of Nations, lifting the cup in a tournament that happened in 2012. This would be close to ten years anniversary of the tragedy. That day the Zambian squad, remembered as one of the Africa’s most talented team in history, was headed to to the Fifa World Cup Qualifier match against Senegal in Dakar. The plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean shortly after taking off from Libreville, Gabon. All the 25 passengers and five crew members passed away. Only 3 people survived the terrible accident, just because for several reasons they were not on board: namely, Bwalya, being one of these, survived as he travelled separately with the team to Dakar to meet up with the squad from his base in Europe, where he played for Dutch club PSV Eindhoven. And it was just in the emotional mark of respect moment at the graves when Kalusha Bwalya decided to dedicate his career and his life to the rebirth of Zambia National Football team, in honour of the dramatic disappearance of his teammates. Source – TDM 2000 International

By Michael Kachitsa Nyasa Big Bullets (NBB) is a Malawian football (soccer) club based in Blantyre. Bullets are regarded as the number one football club in Malawi in terms of supporters, league title winning and financial background. It was formerly known as Bata Bullets then Total Big Bullets and in 2003, the then Malawi’s President Bakili Muluzi adopted the team and renamed it Bakili Bullets. It was during this period that the team enjoyed one of its glamorous periods, reaching the lucrative group stages of CAF Champions League 2004. It was also during the same period that the club had a training camp in the United Kingdom in readiness for the CAF Champions League. Currently the team is sponsored by Nyasa Manufacturing Company (NMC). Its nickname ever since is Maulle (native language for bullets) The club was formed by a group of players in Blantyre in 1967 from its local archrivals Mighty Wanderers by then was composed of only Whites and Colored,all blacks were sidelined because of this reason all blacks players thought wise to come up with their own team which was known as Nyasaland Bullets. The team was very strong and started winning all games which were played. BB and Mighty Wanderers rivalry started because of Yasin Osman in 1968 after shown interest to join Bullets FC,Wanderers Fans were very furious and decided to sell him at 100 Malawian pounds.Yasin Osman went into Malawi Soccer History being a first to be sold. The history of the rivalry between MTL Wanderers and Big Bullets could be likened to that of Everton F.C. and Liverpool F.C. of the FA Premier League. Just like the latter, Big Bullets was formed out of MTL Wanderers in the late 1960s and have enjoyed more success than the ‘parent’ club.