Godfrey Chitalu was a prolific striker; a striker who was able to get the ball into the net from any angle. He was well built, tall and very quick. I remember watching him as a young boy and the whole stadium would erupt each time he touched the ball. Chitalu’s nickname was ‘Ucar’—after the famous batteries in Zambia that lived on and on. His best attribute was the ability to run with the ball at incredible speed all while beating defenders along the way. He was a Zambian hero and his name grew through word of mouth and through live commentary on the radio. When a match was on we would crowd around one small radio to listen.
I remember watching Chitalu play many matches but the one that stands out most in my mind is Zambia versus Uganda at Dag Hammarskjöld Stadium in Ndola. The game was tight and it was 2-2, going into extra time. Chitalu received the ball almost on the halfway line and beat four defenders to make it 3-2. If that wasn’t enough, he scored another cracker to make it 4-2 at the final whistle.
He scored 107 goals in the 1972 season, during the games he played in the league, cup competitions, national team and friendlies. I had the privilege of watching both Chitalu as well as another Zambian superstar Alex Chola, play in Mufulira, in northern Zambia, where I grew up. Both of these extraordinary men went on to coach the national team for which I played. They were my inspiration. Unfortunately, both perished in the tragic air disaster that claimed the lives of all my teammates off the coast of Gabon in 1993. In Zambia, Chitalu was regarded as a legend. He is still a household name and his tale will be told wherever there is talk of football. He will never be forgotten.
In all my travels across the globe, if you look at the contribution of the greats: Pele, Diego Maradona, Michel Platini, Johan Cruyff, to mention a few, they were all players of exceptional ability. If Chitalu and Chola had been given the same platform, they would have ranked among these greats. It is unfortunate that the football market was not as open then as it is today because there is no doubt in my mind that both these Zambian greats would have made it on the European stage.
Nearly three decades later, the emergence of Lionel Messi has rekindled the same awe that I experienced growing up and watching my heroes in Zambia. Today, for a player to score 91 goals in competitive matches in a year is almost impossible. Let us give credit where credit is due.
This young man has the ability to win matches, to draw crowds and create something out of the ordinary. With some easy, quick and precise moves, he is able to turn an impossible situation into one which looks easy. It could be said that Messi could be the perfect player, yet one still has to give credit to Barcelona, a team brimming with talent and skill. Messi is exemplary in that his dedication, discipline and hunger to win never subsides; even with all the tackles from defenders trying to stop him in his wake, he is rarely injured and never feigns injury. A true fairplay player, if ever there was one.
I have often been asked to compare Chitalu and Messi. In response, I state that both players were highly skilled and prolific in their goal scoring abilities. I do, however, propose that perhaps records for goal scoring need to be tallied within their respective continents, so that you have a top goal scorer from each continent, this because every continent has different levels of competition.