Ashious Jordan Melu (6 June 1957 – 20 January 1997), also known as Ashios (or Ashols Melu), was a Zambian

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

and coach. Melu captained the Zambia national team from 1988 to 1992.

Playing career

Melu was born in

Chililabombwe Chililabombwe (formerly named Bancroft) is a small town in Copperbelt Province, Zambia. It is located near the Democratic Republic of the Congo border. The name Chililabombwe means 'place of the croaking frog' in the local language of Lamba. The ...

on June 6, 1957, and attended ''Chililabombwe Secondary School.'' He began playing for the

Konkola Blades Konkola Blades is a Zambian professional football club based in Chililabombwe, that competes in the Zambian Premier League. They play their home games at the 20,000-capacity Konkola Stadium in Chililabombwe. Achievements * Zambian Cup: ::1983, 1 ...

before moving to

Mufulira Wanderers Mufulira Wanderers are Zambia's most successful football club, based in the Copperbelt town of Mufulira, and compete in the Zambia Super League after their promotion from the Zambia National Division One at the end of 2023–24. Popularly kno ...

in the late 1970s. Melu played as a striker and was the top goal scorer in the Zambian league in 1983, scoring 43 goals, and winning the ''Zambian Footballer of the Year'' award. Alongside Efford Chabala,

Kalusha Bwalya Kalusha Bwalya (born 16 August 1963) is a Zambian former professional footballer. He is Zambia's eighth-most capped player and third on the list of all-time top goalscorers behind Godfrey Chitalu and Alex Chola. Kalusha was named African Foot ...

, Frederick Kashimoto, Evans Katebe and the Philemon brothers ( Philemon Mulala and

Philemon Kaunda Philemon Kaunda was a Zambian footballer who featured for Mufulira Wanderers in the early '80s and also played for Zambia as a central defender. His younger brother Philemon Mulala also played for both Wanderers and Zambia in the same period. K ...

), and later Charles Musonda, Johnson Bwalya and Gibby Mbasela, Melu was part of Wanderers team, which was successful in cup competitions in the 1980s, though they never won the league championship. At the beginning of the 1986 football season, Melu changed positions to a defender. Melu represented

Zambia Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa. It is typically referred to being in South-Central Africa or Southern Africa. It is bor ...

at the African Cup of Nations in 1986, in which Zambia was eliminated in the first round. In 1987, Melu won his second Footballer of the Year award. Notably, several other teammates had won the award, such as

(1984) and Johnson Bwalya (1986). Efford Chabala missed out on the award but won the Sportsman of the Year trophy in 1985. In 1988, Melu took over as Zambian captain when Fighton Simukonda was dropped after the

President's Cup The Presidents Cup is a series of men's golf matches between a team representing the United States and an International Team representing the rest of the world except Europe as that continent competes against the United States in a similar but ...

tournament in June in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

. Later in the year, Melu led the team to the Seoul Olympic games, in which Zambia became the first African country to reach the quarterfinals. In doing so, Zambia defeated

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

and

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

along the way with 4-0 scorelines and lost to

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

by the same margin. From 1989 to 90, Melu played five matches for the top division, Greek side

Apollon Kalamarias Apollon Kalamarias (Greek: Απόλλων Καλαμαριάς) is a Greek sports club from Kalamaria, a suburb of Thessaloniki. It was founded in 1926. The club is named after Apollo, the mythical Greek god. Its colors are red and black. Histor ...

. Melu later played for an Austrian club for a year before returning to feature for Zambia at the Africa Cup of Nations in 1992 for his final appearance for Zambia. As a result, Melu was not part of the team that perished in the Gabon plane crash disaster the following year.

Coaching career

In 1992, Melu turned to coaching and was first appointed

assistant coach An athletic coach is a person coaching in sport, involved in the direction, instruction, and training of a sports team or athlete. History The original sense of the word ''Coach'' is that of a Coach (carriage), horse-drawn carriage, deriving ul ...

at the Wanderers, before taking over as head coach. In 1994, he was named Zambia national team assistant coach to

Roald Poulsen Roald Poulsen (28 November 1950 – 16 October 2024) was a Danish football manager, who most prominently won the 1989 Danish championship with Odense BK and managed the Zambia national team. Career Poulsen started his coaching career with am ...

. He then led the Wanderers to back-to-back league championships in 1995 and 1996, achieving what he did not as a player - giving the Wanderers their first league success since 1978. Before the beginning of the 1997 season, Melu fell ill and died in early 1997.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Melu, Ashious 1957 births 1997 deaths People from Chililabombwe District Zambian men's footballers Zambia men's international footballers Zambian expatriate men's footballers Olympic footballers for Zambia Footballers at the 1988 Summer Olympics 1982 African Cup of Nations players 1986 African Cup of Nations players 1992 African Cup of Nations players Mufulira Wanderers F.C. players Apollon Kalamarias F.C. players Super League Greece players Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Expatriate men's footballers in Austria Zambian expatriate sportspeople in Austria Men's association football forwards