This week, the nation lost one of its football geniuses in former Kabwe Warriors’ midfield dynamo and Zambia National Soccer Team striker Boniface Simutowe who, like former Argentine skipper Diego Maradona, would not hesitate to use the ‘hand of God’ to rescue his home team and country from the brink of defeat.
The highly talented Simutowe, 65, died at Lusaka’s Levy Mwanawasa General Hospital in the early hours n of Tuesday morning and was scheduled to be buried yesterday (Friday).
According to media reports quoting his young brother Levy, the former interim Chipolopolo mentor had been in and out of hospital  until he finally passed on this week.
Renowned for his tenacity, Simutowe was a dependable redeemer who always put in an extra mile for  the sake of ensuring Zambia or his Magnificent Kabwe Warriors side was not humiliated by opponents  whether it be in domestic league or continental competitions like the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).
As a result whenever the chips were down and Zambia or Warriors appeared doomed to certain defeat,
it is not far-fetched to say that officials on the technical benches and anxious supporters alike looked up  to him to do “something special” to alter the status quo in favour of his team.
With the packed stadium chanting ‘Simutowe chita po chimo’ (Simutowe please do something as usual  to save us), he would reciprocate by doing what Real Madrid and Portugal’s talisman Christiano Ronaldo  and Manchester United and England marksman Wayne Rooney are currently doing in the Barclays
Premiership and La Liga respectively: tricking the referee into believing he had been fouled in the danger  zone upon which the middleman would have no option but blow for a penalty.
Some people would say that that was probably his Achilles heels but at the end of the day Simutowe  was doing it for mother Zambia and  his side.
To say that it endeared him to legions of supporters  throughout the country would be an understatement.
Winner of the Footballer of the Year (1968) and Sportsman of the Year (1969) awards, the modest and  princely Simutowe started his soccer career in Luanshya where he played for his childhood club, Roan
United before he moved to Kabwe where he joined a generation of other young players employed by  Zambia Railways (ZR) and helped transform the former Broken Hill Warriors into Magnificent Kabwe
Warriors.  The expanded pool of players included, among others, Gibby Zulu, Richard Stephenson, Peter  Nyongani, his former club-mates at Roan United Sandy Kaposa and Emmanuel Mwape; Edward
Musonda and Sandford Mvula, both from Mighty Mufulira Wanderers Football Club.

. Simutowe

As a sports reporter on the Times of Zambia at the time, I always enjoyed covering soccer matches  between Warriors and Wanderers because they were traditional rivals who drew large crowds.
Above all, their encounters were so fiercely contested that the outcome was determined only by the final  whistle.
I remember – though faintly, one incident involving the combative Simutowe caused drama during a cup  final between Warriors and Wanderers at Ndola’s Dag Hammarskjoeld Stadium. Warriors dominated the  game, but against the run of play Wanderers scored two quick goal before Warriors replied to make it 2- l.
Wanderers defended their slender lead despite the pressure launched by goal-hungry Kabwe Warriors’  strikers led by Godfrey “Ucar” Chitalu, who had joined the Kabwe side from Kitwe United.
The situation was getting desperate for Warriors as the ‘Shinde boys’ led by skipper Samuel ‘Zoom’  Ndhlovu and Dickson Makwaza continued to repel everything thrown at them by manager Eliya  Mwanza’s  side from the Midlands.
With the cheering crowd behind them, chanting a chorus of  ‘Simutowe chita po chimo”, Simutowe responded to his fans’ calls on him to do something special that  would save Warriors from humiliation at the hands of their Copperbelt arch-rivals.
The opportunity to do the ‘deed’ soon arose.
Sandwiched between two Wanderers defenders trying to  mark him inside the penalty box, Boniface Simutowe decided to take a dive, landing on all fours as if he  had been fouled.
The referee, who probably did not see exactly what had happened, had no option but   award Warriors a penalty amid protests by Wanderers players and officials.
The stadium fell silent for a  brief moment.
If he had converted the penalty the match would have gone into extra time and anything  could have happened.
But Simutowe, who had stepped forward to take the spot-kick, had his shot  stopped by a diving Wanderers’ goalkeeper Tolomeo Mwansa for the match to end in favour of the  legendary cup fighters from Shinde Stadium.
In a post match interview, I asked Boniface what had happened and how he felt after missing a crucial  penalty that could have changed the complexion of the match, he said, “I have not scored a penalty  against Mufulira Wanderers.
My boot was heavy as I took the penalty …it was like I was using a concrete   block instead of my usual boots.
I normally scored penalties against other clubs but not Wanderers.”
Dismissing everything with a big smile he promised Warriors would do better next time and disappeared  into the dressing-rooms where Warriors players and their club officials were preparing to drive back to  Kabwe for a postmortem of their pulsating encounter.
Meanwhile, I believe I would be speaking for many people who believe that former national team  players deserve to be interred in memorial parks as a way celebrating heroes who, as a collective,  entertained Zambians and helped build Zambia into a united peace-loving nation.
Although some  officials tried to pack their soccer teams with their ‘home boys’ these were generally young talented  men who devoted their time to bringing Zambians together regardless of tribe or place of origin.
If you  were a Kabwe Warriors’ supporter you spoke highly of Gibby Zulu and Boniface Simutowe not because  they came from your tribe or province but because they were outstanding players who helped put  Zambia and their club on the world map.
These were heroes who were prepared to mount a last ditch battle to defend mother Zambia whenever  her reputation was threatened, hence Simutowe’s inclination to resort to all the tricks in the book like  Diego Maradona who for the love of his country, propelled the ball into the net with his hand during  a World Cup match against England, claiming it was not his but God’s (divine intervention) hand.
I believe Football Association (FAZ) president Kalusha Bwalya and his team could persuade district councils to set aside some pieces of land in their respective areas of jurisdiction as exclusive burial sites for such heroes.
I say this because I did not know that one of the three famous Nkole brothers Edward (others being Patrick and Abraham) who played for Mufulira Wanderers and the Zambian national team in the 1970s, had died until recently when I stumbled upon a tomb bearing his epitaph at Kansuswa Cemetery, some 15km on the Mufulira-Kitwe Road.
Zoom, a former National Team captain, Sportsman and Footballer of the Year awards winner also lies buried somewhere in Mufulira.
Yet this is one man who brought unparallel honour to this nation when as coach he piloted Zambia to that famous 4-0 victory over former World Cup champions Italy at the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games in South Korean.
Many other former national stars similarly lie buried in unmarked graves across the country.
It is undeniable many families cannot afford the cost of erecting decent tombstones at the graves of their departed loved ones, which is why FAZ and the Ministry of Youth, Sport and Culture should step in to ensure the football warriors’ legacies are well preserved for posterity.
Under the compassionate leadership of current FIFA president Sepp Blatter, the world football governing body, if approached, would, I believe, be willing to help set up such memorial parks for Zambia’s fallen soccer heroes like ‘Chita po Chimo’ Boniface Simutowe.
Farewell Boniface, you made your mark. May Your Soul Rest In Eternal Peace.