Godfrey Chitalu

Who was Godfrey Chitalu?

Godfrey Chitalu was a Zambian footballer who is widely regarded as the greatest Zambian player ever as he holds his national team scoring record and was voted Zambian footballer of the year five times. As well, he was selected by CAF as one of the best 200 African footballers of the past 50 years in 2006.

Chitalu scored more than 100 goals in all competitions in 1972, more than Gerd Müller's total in 1972 and Lionel Messi's total in 2012, both of which are often referred to by journalist as "world records". However, Zambian researchers found out they were actually 116 throughout the calendar year. This includes 15 goals in CAF competitions, 91 goals in FAZ tournaments, 5 goals in friendly games, 3 goals in the NFL Trophy and 2 goals in the NFL Benevolent Fund Match. The research was presented in the year 2012 after Lionel Messi broke the alleged world record of Gerd Müller. Nevertheless, a FIFA spokesman declared that an official FIFA world record had never existed as they did not keep track of domestic competitions.

Upon retirement, Chitalu took to coaching and was in charge of the Zambia national team when the entire squad perished in a plane crash off the coast of Gabon on April 27, 1993.