• FORMER Chipolopolo stars Dean Mwiinde (left) and Patrick Phiri among the pall bearers during late Kaiser Kalambo’s (insert) funeral procession at Lusaka’s Leopards Hill Memorial Park yesterday. Picture by ELIAS CHIPEPO.
By HUMPHREY LOMBE –
The type of defending seen under the English Premiership teams of rugged and combative football is what Kaiser Kalambo exhibited and despite his diminutive size he was a no nonsense man on the pitch with his marking.
Little wonder, that Zambia national soccer team Yugoslav coach Ante Buselic drafted Kalambo and other young talent Brighton Sinyangwe and Joseph Mapulanga into the squad to blend with the older and experienced lads.
Among the seasoned players were the likes of Dickson Makwaza, Dick Chama, Godfrey Chitalu, Peter Mhango, Edward Musonda, Lazarus Musumali, Boniface Simutowe, Tolomeo Mwansa and Richard Stevenson.
Kalambo, who shared the same acronym as the statesman Kenneth Kaunda ‘KK’, no doubt had an illustrious football career that spurned over three decades as a player and coach.
He was among the schoolboy internationals that were privileged of playing against under-17 sides attached to English division one clubs back then in the early ‘70’s, courtesy of Rothmans of Pall Mall of which former Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) chairman Tom Mtine served as Board chairperson.
Ndola United chairperson Julius Sakala wooed Kalambo and put him into Masala Secondary where he repeated his form two (Grade nine) on securing a transfer from Luanshya High School.
As a schoolboy international under the Zambia Schools national soccer team tutored by Geoff Coleman, Kaiser caught the eye of Ante Buselic who enlisted him to the senior side. At Ndola United, he joined former Roan United team-mate Burton Mugala.
Kalambo was born and bred in Luanshya and grew up in Roan township and it came as no surprise that his playing career started with Roan United.
In Ndola he became a household name playing alongside the likes of Gibbon ‘Nigger’ Chewe, Ackim Mulamata, Charles Phiri, Doug Morton, Burton Mugala, Cornelius Fumpa, Morrison Chimbalasepa and Jedrick Lundwe, Hudson Kasongo and the Zambia Army trio of Lonesome Katiwa, Mufalali Mufalali and Clement Mulenga.
The others were defence kingpins Moses Kabaila, Edwin Mbaso and Lyson Matutu. Gibbon was nicknamed Nigger because of outstanding skin pigmentation.
“Our chairman Julius Sakala influenced Kaiser’s move from Roan and found him a school place and he lived in my house as I was already working for Zesco,” said Mugala, who joined a year earlier in 1972.
Some of the memorable visits by the junior English sides were by Wolvermpton Wanderers, West Ham United and Ipswich Town. Among Kaiser’s contemporaries playing for the schools included the likes of Bernard Chanda, George Mungwa, Jani Simulambo, Stanley Phiri, Ackim Musenge, Poni Muyambango, Noah Chishiki, Robertson Zulu, Joseph Mapulanga, Charles Walubita and Clement Chelu, though, most of them were older by between two to five years.
Since winning a place in the national team after Zambia finished second to Zaire now DR Congo in the 1974 Africa Cup of Nations Final in Cairo, Kalambo commanded a regular place under Buselic beginning 1971 to 1976 during the Yugoslav’s reign as coach.
Even when Englishman Brian Tiler took over as Zambia coach, he maintained faith in KK. Although for a year, Colonel Brightwell Banda held fort before the Briton’s appointment.
Kalambo played different roles for club and country.
At club level both for Roan and Ndola, he featured as left wing half in a midfield role and at left back with the national team.
In fact it was in the very year of joining Ndola that Buselic called him for national duty in 1973.
Buselic converted Kaiser to a new position in Egypt during the Africa Cup and his first acid test was when Zambia took on Congo Brazzaville and Kaiser came in as substitute at left back in place of Edward Musonda in a tie that Zambia subsequently won 4-2 and the debutant acquitted himself well.
Buselic was good at this sort of thing because he also switched Peter Mhango from inside right forward position to right back and Mhango’s adaptability to this new position was astonishing because he became so proficient as if he had always played in that role.
Kalambo was a tough nut to crack even when playing against magnificent Kabwe Warriors who had a prolific strike force comprising deadly striker, Godfrey ‘Ucar’ Chitalu, strike partner Sandy Kaposa, ball genius Boniface Simutowe, and the evergreen Richard Stevenson.
I vividly remember one such tough encounter a charity shield match played at Independence Stadium on rain-soaked turf.
Because Kalambo was stubbornly tough, a Warriors player elbowed him and bled profusely from the mouth although that was spotted by the referee who penalised the aggressor and the match was halted for some minutes while he received attention.
In this bruising battle that saw Warriors edge past Ndola 1-0, Kalambo, Doug Morton, Kabaila, Mulamata and Kasongo proved impenetrable. It took the masterly of Chitalu and Simutowe to break down Ndola.
The only unfortunate thing though is that Ndola did not at any one given time manage a win against Warriors. Warriors were too good that in one season 1973 they scooped all the silverware and Chitalu top scored with 107 goals.
However, something dramatic happened at the end of the 1975 season, Warriors were demoted to division two under the reign of Anderson Mazoka as chairperson, who was also Zambia Railways General Manager, but the club managed against all odds to bounce back after spending season in the lower league.
As for Ndola home matches, against Warriors, Mufulira Wanderers, Nkana, City of Lusaka and Nchanga Rangers, provided a lot of thrills and pulled crowds at Dag Hammarskjold Stadium that was razed in 1986 to give way to a construction of a modern stadium that never materialised.
The stadium was pulled down in anticipation of Zambia staging the 1988 Africa Cup of Nations which the Tom Mtine led FAZ administration won the right to host.
But failure by government to release funds for the construction of the stadium halted the plan. Zambia withdrew from hosting the event and was sanctioned heavily by the Confederation of African Football (CAF).
That spelt doom for first class entertainment that Dag Hammarskjold provided. The name Kaiser Kalambo was synonymous with Dag Hammarskjold. Kalambo is gone sleeping in death but his memory will live on forever.
