Philemon Chisala (born 11 November 1966) is a former

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 ...

n footballer who featured for

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 ‘80s and early ‘90s as a defender or

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

. He also represented

at the

1989 CECAFA Cup The 1989 CECAFA Cup was the 16th edition of the tournament. It was held in Kenya, and was won by Uganda national football team, Uganda. The matches were played between December 2–16. Kenya sent two teams: Kenya A and Kenya B team. Group A ...

and CAN 1990.

Early life

Chisala was born in

Mufulira Mufulira is a town in the Copperbelt Province of Zambia. Mufulira means "Place of Abundance and Peace". The town developed around the Mufulira Copper Mine in the 1930s. The town also serves as the administrative capital of Mufulira District. G ...

where his father Philemon Kapele worked as a miner for

Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines ZCCM Investments Holdings is a successor company to Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines Limited (ZCCM Ltd), of Zambia. History The company, ZCCM, was formed by a gradual process of nationalization and corporate concatenation which began in Janu ...

(

ZCCM ZCCM Investments Holdings is a successor company to Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines Limited (ZCCM Ltd), of Zambia. History The company, ZCCM, was formed by a gradual process of nationalization and corporate concatenation which began in Janu ...

) Mufulira Division. The fifth born in a family of ten, He grew up in Section 5 of Kantanshi, one of the mining areas in Mufulira. His younger brother Patson Kapele would also go on to play for Wanderers.Chisala: ‘Mighty’ legend turns welder, ''Zambia Daily Mail,'' 3 September 2011 He attended Mufulira Mine and Kantanshi Secondary Schools where he played schools football, and joined Mutende Youth team before moving up to play club football.

Playing career

Chisala joined FAZ Division II Kafironda Explosives in Mufulira in 1985 where the coach, former Mufulira Wanderers striker Benson “Swift” Musonda, played him in central defence. After almost three years at Kafironda, Chisala made the move to Wanderers towards the end of 1987 where he found Ashious Melu and George Lwandamina established in central defence so coach Ackim Musenge decided to play him at

right-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

in the upcoming season. Occasionally featuring as a defensive midfielder, Chisala played in all the games in his first season at Wanderers, winning the 1988 Independence Cup when Wanderers beat

Roan United Roan United is a Zambian football club based in Luanshya, in the Zambian Premier League and mostly successful during the early years of Zambian football. Indeed, they were the inaugural winners of the ZPL, clinching what was then called the Northe ...

3–0, and the

Champion of Champions Champion of Champions generally refers to a championship tournament in which all participants have won a single event series of the same tournament. It may also refer to: * Champion of Champions (horse race), a stakes race annually held in Califor ...

trophy after a 3–2 victory over

Kabwe Warriors Kabwe Warriors is a Zambian football (soccer), football club based in Kabwe that plays in the Zambian Premier League. They play their home games at Godfrey 'Ucar' Chitalu 107 Stadium, Railway Stadium in Kabwe. They were once the second most succe ...

. His performances were rewarded with the club's Footballer of the Year award for 1989 and when Melu left to pursue a professional career in

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

, Chisala dropped into defence where he cemented his position, and his commanding height saw him easily slot in though he was equally comfortable in midfield, scoring a number of goals and was soon after named captain of the team. He would go on to win the Heroes and Unity in 1991 when Wanderers beat

Nkana Nkana is a section of the city of Kitwe, Copperbelt Province, Zambia which started off in the early part of the 20th century as a railway station to support the growing complex of copper mining operations. It was named after Chief Nkana, the lo ...

2–1 in an exciting final in

Kitwe Kitwe is the third largest city in terms of infrastructure development (after Lusaka and Ndola) and second largest city in terms of size and population (after Lusaka) in Zambia. With a population of 517,543 (''2010 census provisional'') Kitwe is ...

and another Champion of Champions Cup in 1992 following another clash with Nkana which Wanderers won 2–0. Wanderers would however twice finish as runners-up to Nkana in the league in 1989 and 1992. After Wanderers failed to win any silverware in 1993, Chisala left the following year to join

Extension Gunners Extension Gunners FC is a football club based in Lobatse, Botswana. The team plays in the Debswana First Division South . They play at the Lobatse Sports Complex. History The club was founded in 1962 in the town of Lobatse as the Lobatse CS Gun ...

Lobatse Lobatse is a town in south-eastern Botswana, 70 kilometres south of the capital Gaborone, situated in a valley running north towards Gaborone and close to the border with South Africa. Lobatse has a population of 29,772 as of 2022. The town is ...

, where former Wanderers and Zambia coach Samuel ‘Zoom’ Ndhlovu was in charge. He also linked up with former Wanderers team-mate Francis Chisenga and the duo helped Gunners win the

Botswana Premier League The Botswana Premier League is the highest level Association football, football league in Botswana. Organised by the Botswana Football Association, the league was formed in 1978 to replace the pre-independence Bechuanaland Union African Soccer L ...

title in 1994. Chisala was named captain of the team in 1997 until he retired two years later and returned to Zambia where he had a stint as coach of Lusaka Youth Soccer Academy.

National team

Chisala got a call-up to the national team in November 1989, as Zambia prepared for that year's

CECAFA Cup The CECAFA Cup, formerly the Gossage Cup (1926–1966) and the East and Central African Senior Challenge Cup (1967–1971), is the oldest football tournament in Africa. It is organized by the Council for East and Central Africa Football Associati ...

and he made his debut in Zambia's second match of the tournament against Malawi which ended in a goalless draw. Zambia reached the semi-finals where they lost to Uganda. He was also in the team that traveled to India to take part in the Jawaharlal Nehru Centenary Cup, where they lost all their games to club sides from

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

and the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, featuring in two matches.Mark Cruickshank and Neil Morrison (10 September 2015). "Jawaharlal Nehru Centenary Cup (Calcutta) 1990" ''RSSSF''. http://www.rsssf.com/tablesn/nehru90cent.html (Retrieved 9 August 2020) He was also in Zambia's team at the

1990 African Cup of Nations The 1990 African Cup of Nations was the 17th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the football championship of Africa ( CAF). It was hosted by Algeria. Just like in 1988, the field of eight teams was split into two groups of four. Algeria won i ...

where he played one game against

Senegal Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is the westernmost country in West Africa, situated on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. It borders Mauritania to Mauritania–Senegal border, the north, Mali to Mali–Senegal border, the east, Guinea t ...

which ended in a barren stalemate that saw both teams qualify to the semi-finals, where Zambia lost to

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

2–0. The match against Senegal turned out to be his last game for Zambia.

Personal life

Chisala was married with five children though the marriage ended in divorce when he had a hard time finding meaningful employment after he retired from playing. He eventually settled in

Lusaka Lusaka ( ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Zambia. It is one of the fastest-developing cities in southern Africa. Lusaka is in the southern part of the central plateau at an elevation of about . , the city's population was abo ...

and found his livelihood as a welder.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chisala, Philemon 1966 births Zambian men's footballers Zambia men's international footballers 1990 African Cup of Nations players Footballers from Mufulira Living people Men's association football midfielders Men's association football defenders