THE PHENOMENAL “KING KALU”
The name “Great Kalu” is a household name in the world of the game we all love, as Zedbola, we would like to dedicate this article to the phenomenon Kalusha “Great Kalu” Bwalya during the time period (1985-1997).
It was during this time period that Kalusha Bwalya would venture out to conquer Europe and he did just that; he found a second home at Belgian side Cercle Brugge in the 1986/1987 season. At Cercle Brugge, Kalusha was twice voted supporters Player of the Year with performances that earned him top goal scorer for the club during his stay at the club where he played over 90 games, scoring 30 goals in total. In 1988 came the Seoul Olympics, where Great Kalu had an exceptional outing, emerging as Zambia’s top scorer with 6 goals, among them was a hattrick against Italy, a brace against Guatemala, and 1 goal against Iraq. Zambia scored 10 goals in the process, Kalu contributing 60% of the goals scored, which got Zambia out of the group stages, making them the only African team to progress. With 6 goals, Great Kalu ended the tournament 2nd on the goal-scoring chart behind Brazil’s Romario who had 7 goals.
In the year 1988, a time came when the best of the best had to be recognized and appreciated; King Kalu was awarded African Footballer of the Year 1988, beating Roger Milla & Youssouf Falikou Fofana to the award after receiving 111 votes while Roger & Youssouf got 65 and 40 votes respectively. The following year, he, unfortunately, lost the award to George Weah but still came in 3rd place.
Great Kalu’s exploits in Belgium earned him a move to Dutch giants PSV Eindhoven in the 1990/1991 season, coached by Bobby Robson; Great Kalu together with the likes of the lethal Romario and Popescu won the Dutch league title back to back, playing over 100 games for PSV and finding the back of the net 25 times, he is quoted in an interview jokingly stating “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.”
In the 1994/1995 football season, Great Kalu moved to Mexican club America, where he played about 88 games and scored a total of 21 goals in his entire stay at the club. Kalu appreciated his stay there and is quoted telling 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” and went on to call his time there as “probably the best of my life.”
Forward to 1996, at the Africa Cup of Nations hosted by South Africa, a time at which King Kalu was already an established figure in the world of football. At the tournament, Zambia finished 3rd and King Kalu’s performance helped the Chipolopolo go that far as he emerged Top Scorer with 5 goals, which he achieved after bagging a brace and a hattrick, he further went on to receive the award of Player of the Tournament as no other player matched his great performances. In the same year, King Kalu went on to be nominated for the 1996 FIFA World Player of The Year; where he was voted as the 12th Best Player in the world, which is a record on its own, as he was the first player to be nominated after playing the entire year for a non-European club.
It is a well-known fact that Kalusha Bwalya was great and that is why Zedbola dedicated this article to the legend of “King Kalu” so as to remind those that may have forgotten as well as those that may not have known that Kalusha Bwalya was a phenomenal, outstanding, marvel and great player; in modern urban language, he would have been called a “BEAST” of a footballer. Below is a statement from someone who got to witness his greatness:
“We would always celebrate whenever King Kalu stood to take a freekick as we knew it would be a goal, he would cut through opposition defenders like a hot knife through butter with skills as smooth as the back of a spoon and that left foot of his brought me happiness that could not be matched.”
