Sport
Landmark
Godfrey Chitalu
1947 – 1993
Zambia's greatest goalscorer, lost with the whole team off Gabon
Landmark is level 2 of 4 in the Zambia Hall of Fame: a first that opened a door, or the pre-eminent figure of their generation in this country. See how the levels work.
Why they are here
Ucar: the finest striker Zambia has produced, whose 1972 season the football association puts at 107 goals. He was coaching the national team when the plane carrying it went down off Gabon in 1993.
Godfrey Chitalu, nicknamed Ucar after a battery advertised as long-lasting, was the dominant Zambian footballer of the 1970s, the country's record international scorer and a repeated league top scorer with Kabwe Warriors.
The Football Association of Zambia submitted records to FIFA in 2012 crediting him with 107 goals in the 1972 calendar year — more than Gerd Müller's mark that Lionel Messi was then breaking — though the tally has never been ratified. He later coached the national side, and was with the team on 27 April 1993 when the aircraft carrying it to a World Cup qualifier crashed into the sea shortly after taking off from Libreville, killing all thirty on board. The side Zambia rebuilt from nothing reached the Africa Cup of Nations final the following year, and won it in 2012 in Libreville, a few miles from where the plane went down.
The Football Association of Zambia submitted records to FIFA in 2012 crediting him with 107 goals in the 1972 calendar year — more than Gerd Müller's mark that Lionel Messi was then breaking — though the tally has never been ratified. He later coached the national side, and was with the team on 27 April 1993 when the aircraft carrying it to a World Cup qualifier crashed into the sea shortly after taking off from Libreville, killing all thirty on board. The side Zambia rebuilt from nothing reached the Africa Cup of Nations final the following year, and won it in 2012 in Libreville, a few miles from where the plane went down.
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