By Duncan Mlanjira
Lusaka City Council has renamed its Los Angeles Road to Kalusha Bwalya Road in honour of Zambia’s most revered football player, the Great Kalu.
A letter from Lusaka Mayor Miles Sampa made available to Maravi Express says one of the resolutions made at a meeting that was convened by all 33 councilors on December 22, they decided to honour the Great Kalu based on his “exemplary CV both as a player and administrator in the football arena in Lusaka, Zambia, Africa and the world at large”.
The Great Kalu
The road starts from Lumbumba street past City and Soweto markets, Kanyama Township all the way into Makemi.
“Please make contact and be available in the second week of next month so that you can witness the unveiling of the road signage depicting the name ‘Kalusha Bwalya’,” says the letter from Mayor Sampa.
In his reaction, the Great Kalu says he is “absolutely blown away by this honour”.
“I am so humbled to be recognised in this manner. Thank you so much to the Mayor of the City of Lusaka, Miles Sampa and his Council for bestowing me with this honour.
“I would be remiss if I did not mention the Zambian people that supported me throughout my career, from my Zambia schools days to the KK XI and Chipolopolo.
He was part of Zambia’s 2012 AFCON
success
“It feels like yesterday that I was a ball boy at Mufulira Blackpool in the 70’s. Credit has to go to the many team mates and coaches that believed in me and afforded me the opportunity to play football and in so doing, follow my passion.
“Without all of these people this would not be possible. I hope this serves as encouragement to the many footballers, sports men and women who will come after me, to work hard in pursuit of their dreams so that they too will be recognised for the service to Mother Zambia.
As a player
“I am truly grateful for this gesture ??. Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year 2020, God Bless,” says the Great Kalu.
He is Zambia’s 8th-most capped player and third on the list of all-time goal scorers behind Godfrey Chitalu and Alex Chola, as according to his resume on Wikipedia.
Kalusha was named African Footballer of the Year in 1988 by the magazine France Football and was nominated for the 1996 FIFA World Player of the Year where he was voted the 12th-best player in the world, the first to be nominated after playing the entire year for a non-European club.
His career as a player, coach and president of the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) is partly shown in the documentary film ‘Eighteam’.
In the match Zambia beat Italy 4-0
However, Kalusha lost the FAZ seat to a renowned businessman-turned football official Andrew Kamanga by 163 to 156 votes in what many thought was an impossible task for the challenger.
He was a member of the national squad that participated at the 1988 Olympic Games making his mark with a most famous hat-trick in a 4–0 victory against mighty Italy.
At the full international level, he appeared in 87 international matches and scored 39 goals from 1983 to 2004.
Jersey number 11
He debuted against Sudan in April 1983 at Dag Hammarskjoeld Stadium in a Cup of Nations qualifier in Ndola, and scored his first goal against Uganda in a World Cup qualifier the following year at the same venue.
He has appeared in multiple tournaments, including six editions of the Africa Cup of Nations.
Although he was captain of the national football team during the qualification matches for the 1994 World Cup, Kalusha was not on the ill-fated flight on April 1993 when the entire team and its management were killed when the plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off Gabon.
Honoring the fallen teammates in Gabon in 2012
As he was playing for PSV Eindhoven, his schedule had him flying from the Netherlands to Senegal to join the team instead of being on the team plane.
The Great Kalu, Africa’s most famous Number 11, took on the mantle of spearheading the revival of the national side the following year, captaining the side to the runners-up spot at the 1994 AFCON in Tunisia — where they succumbed to the Super Eagles of Nigeria.
This was to be the peak of his own career and Zambian football for a long time to come. The Chipolopolo finished in 3rd place at the next AFCON IN 1996 with Kalusha winning the Golden Boot Award as the top scorer at the tournament.
He was a player-coach during the African 2006 World Cup qualification matches in which Zambia played drew with Liberia.
With a few minutes left of the match, Kalusha, aged 41, came off the bench during the second half, scoring from a trademark direct free kick to give Zambia a 1–0 victory.
However, Zambia finished third and failed to qualify for the 2006 World Cup.
Despite the failure to qualify, Bwalya coached Zambia at the 2006 AFCON but following their elimination in the first round, he he resigned from his post.
Kalusha’s dream of holding the coveted AFCON trophy came 2012 when Zambia, which was underestimated by many football pundits upset the star-studded Côte d’Ivoire to win the final of the 2012 tournament.
As Zambian FA President, he joined the players and lifted the cup in a country where his former teammates perished in an aircraft disaster.
This emotional story is narrated in the documentary film ‘Eighteam’, directed by Juan Rodriguez-Briso.
He has nevertheless remained actively involved in international football, contributing to the 2006 World Cup as a member of FIFA’s Technical Study Group and was also one of the ambassadors of the 2010 World Cup which was held in South Africa.
Bwalya’s career in Europe began at Cercle Brugge in Belgium. In his first season, he was the club’s top scorer and was twice voted supporters’ player of the year.
Such was his impact that Dutch giants PSV Eindhoven took him to the Eredivisie, and he describes winning the championship twice in 1990/91 and 1991/92, under Bobby Robson, as a career highlight.
Romario, Kalu’s teammate at PSV
He jokingly adds that: “Most of the time we played in the opponents half, because the team was so good.
“You know, we had Romario, Gerald Vanenburg, Eric Gerets, Wim Kieft and Hans van Breukelen and just to be with that group, to train with them day in, day out, was an experience.”
Bwalya’s next stop was Club America, to whom he moved in 1994. The Mexican club’s home ground is the legendary Azteca, an arena of which the Zambian icon has very fond memories.
As he told FIFA.com: “I am privileged to have played in the best stadium in the world – and to have been able to call it my home ground.”
The Mexico experience in general was cherished by Bwalya, who devoted almost eight years of his career to the country and recalls his time there as “probably the best of my life”.
On the international front, his earliest achievement was arguably one of the most remarkable hat-tricks in modern football history, with three-times World Cup champions Italy on the receiving end in a 4–0 win for the Zambians at the 1988 Olympics.
The Great Kalu acknowledges that the result was a surprise, but adds: “Zambia is a sleeping giant in a way. It is a small country in terms of football, but we were the first African team to beat a European power as convincingly as that.”
Bwalya currently serves as a standing committee member at FIFA and the Confederation of African Football (CAF).