Freddie Mwila
Freddie Mwila is a Zambian former association football player and coach. Rated as one of the country's greatest players and coaches, he featured for Rhokana United and was one of the first Zambians to play professional football abroad when he joined American side Atlanta Chiefs in 1967. Mwila also played for Aston Villa in England and made an impact as a coach, leading Power Dynamos to the 1991 African Cup Winners' Cup and coached several other club sides as well as the Zambia and Botswana national teams.
Early life
Mwila was born in Kasama and was raised by his grandparents because his father Dismas Chilufya and mother Senefa Chola were working in Southern Rhodesia and moved to Kitwe in 1952 when his grandfather decided to move him to the Copperbelt so that he could start school.In 1954, he started school at Danbar Primary School, where the heavy industrial area in Kitwe stands today. He later moved to Buseko Primary School where Mwila was involved, like many other young boys on the Copperbelt, in playing football in the townships where nothing but buttons were at stake.
He left Buseko to continue his schooling at Mindolo Primary School where his teachers, without realising the potential he had for football, made him play other sports like boxing, until he left for Kalela School in Wusakile Mine township. Mwila continued playing football at Kalela and was very keen on watching soccer matches at Scrivener Stadium, where he managed to be present at almost every game through being a ball-boy.
The young Mwila joined Wusakile Youth Club where he witnessed the formation of an under–five-feet team of which he was made captain. They played a similar team from Luanshya nearly every month and this was how he came into contact with players like Boniface Simutowe, Sandy Kaposa and Simon Kapende. They also played against teams from other Copperbelt towns.
In 1961, the team travelled to Bulawayo where they lost one game and drew the other. Mwila also had an opportunity to visit his parents, and on his return from Bulawayo, he moved to Kitwe Main School to complete his primary education. During this time, he also devoted many hours to playing football. He played inside-left for the school team.
Playing career
Mwila qualified for secondary education and went to Luanshimba School in 1964, and while a student there, he frequented Scrivener Stadium and trained regularly in the company of Edward Kalale, Lazarus Musumali, Eric Chekoloko, Isaac Musakanya and Simon Chande, players that coach White had brought in to rejuvenate the team. He also struck up a very good partnership with Henry Kalimukwa and developed into a creative midfielder who could pass and score goals. The left-footed Mwila worked hard in the reserve side and made it into the first team in 1965.That same year, Mwila left school to join Rothmans of Pall mall as a trainee salesman and in 1966, the company organised a course in salesmanship at Nairobi's New Era College for six months. While there he played for the Abaluya F.C. and he read in the papers that four Zambians Howard Mwikuta, Emment Kapengwe, Samuel "Zoom" Ndhlovu and Mwila himself had been picked by British coach Phil Woosnam to go and play in the professional league in America, with the Atlanta Chiefs.
Mwila came back to Zambia in January 1967 to prepare for the journey to the US. Mwila, Kapengwe and Mwikuta left Zambia for America on 23 February 1967 where they underwent a two-month trial and were signed.
Mwila returned to Zambia at the end of the season in October 1967, and returned to Atlanta for the 1968 season and won the league. He also played against several European sides, among them, Manchester City and Aston Villa. On 27 May 1968, the 21-year-old Mwila scored the winning goal in a stunning 3–2 upset of the English champions City. He scored twice on the night, before a crowd of 23,141, the largest ever to witness a soccer game in Atlanta Stadium.
It sounded like sour grapes when City coach Malcolm Allison described Chief's play as worse than 'fourth division standard,' and that Mwila was offside. "They couldn't play in the fourth division in England," he said. "The kid who kicked the last goal was offside by at least four yards. The officials just didn't catch it. There's nothing you can do about it.
Three weeks later, Chiefs handed City their second straight whipping before an even bigger crowd of 25,856 and Mwila was on target again but this time from the penalty spot in a 2–1 win and Motaung grabbed the other as if to prove that Chiefs were good enough to play against the best and win. The Zambians also played in a friendly match played against Brazilian side Santos, which featured Pelé.
It was during such encounters that Tommy Docherty, then Manager of English Division II side Aston Villa, saw the two Zambians in action and signed them on. They arrived in Birmingham in August 1969 and signed for Villa for two years. There, they met Brian Tiler, who would later coach the Zambia national team. Kapengwe made three football league appearances and Mwila featured only once, becoming the second and third black players to play for Villa and the first Zambians to play in England. Unfortunately, results were not very good and Villa were relegated to the third division. Docherty left the team and the duo decided to come back home after 9 months with Villa.
The duo had attended a two-week coaching course in Lilleshall coaching school in 1969. Upon their return, Mwila was appointed Zambian player-coach for the 3 match series against French club Racing Club de Strasbourg in June 1970 for the Peter Stuyvesant trophy, making him the youngest coach to take charge of the Zambia national team eight days before his 24th birthday, albeit in matches which were not full internationals.
Both Mwila and team manager Donald Musumali warned would-be interferers that they were 'intimidation-proof' and would not be pushed around, as they knew their responsibilities very well. After the first game which ended in a 2–2 draw at Dag Hammarskjoeld Stadium, Mwila launched a scathing attack on football administrators, charging that some of the 'national team selectors would make better spectators than football administrators.' He was particularly incensed by one Football Association of Zambia official who entered the dressing room at half-time and told Boniface Simutowe he looked 'very excited' during the first half, and also suggested to Mwila and Musumali that certain players should be replaced.
The fearless Mwila added, 'if this kind of behaviour by our selectors continues, I am prepared to be dropped from the national team.'
Unsurprisingly, he was absent from the team for the remainder of the season, both as player and coach. In 1971, Mwila returned to Atlanta in March 1971 to complete the two-year contract he had signed in 1968, fearing that if he objected, the club would take action against him since he was still regarded as their player. When he returned home in September, he charged that the Chiefs had breached the terms of his contract by not paying him more than he was getting previously. He played in 22 games and scored 5 goals and when the season ended in August, he got his clearance together with Motaung.
Mwila's association with Chiefs continued when he left Rhokana to join them yet again in May 1973. The team had changed its name to the Atlanta Appollos after a change of ownership. Apart from playing in Atlanta, he was supposed to go to England for a full-time coaching course, but he achieved neither ambition. He returned home with Kapengwe in August, who was also frustrated. The outspoken Mwila accused the FAZ of standing in his way by not giving him an international clearance to rejoin Chiefs. During their time in Atlanta, neither of them played a single match, but they spent their time coaching young American footballers in colleges.
Mwila stated that he was happy to be back home but was disappointed with the FAZ. He was also unhappy with comments attributed to FAZ Secretary General Ernest Mate that the players did not achieve anything from their overseas trips, for each time they came back to Zambia they failed lamentably to cope with the standard of football. The duo reminded Mate that as the first Zambians to play overseas, they had helped to put the country on the map soccer-wise.
Before leaving for the States, Mwila had resigned from his job with Rhokana mine, so he joined Ndola United in September as player-coach where he continued playing and when he moved to Nkwazi in 1978 as player-coach, he played three games for them before hanging up his boots. However, Nkwazi were docked points for these matches because the FAZ ruled that he was registered as a coach and not as a player.
National team
Mwila made his debut for Zambia at the age of 18 against English side Middlesex Wanderers on 13 June 1965 and scored the first goal in a 2–2 draw in Ndola. His full international debut came in September against Kenya when Zambia won the Rothmans International trophy. Although the two teams tied 8–8 on aggregate in the 3 match series, Zambia were awarded the trophy on the grounds that they had forced six corners to Kenya's five in the final match.He was in the team that won the Malawi Republic cup, scoring 4 goals when Zambia defeated the hosts 6–0 on his birthday in July 1966 and was also in the team that won the Rothmans International trophy against Kenya later that year. In December 1967, he captained Zambia to the Jamhuri cup victory against Kenya and was also captain in World Cup qualifying matches against Sudan which Zambia lost on a strange rule that they had lost the second leg despite the aggregate score being tied at 6–6.
In June 1972, he scored a hat-trick when Zambia overwhelmed Lesotho 6–1 in a World cup qualifier in Ndola.
Mwila featured at Zambia's first ever CAN appearance in Egypt where Zambia lost the final to Zaire after a replay and after the tournament quit playing for the national team because he felt he had reached retirement age.
He is one of Zambia's highest scoring midfielders with 15 goals in full international matches.