Gibby Mbasela
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Biggie Mbasela | ||
| Date of birth | 24 October 1962 | ||
| Place of birth | Kitwe, Northern Rhodesia | ||
| Date of death | 1 May 2000 (aged 37) | ||
| Place of death | Kitwe, Zambia | ||
| Playing position | Forward | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1983–1985 | Big Coke F.C. | ||
| 1986 | Kalulushi Modern Stars | ||
| 1987 | Mufulira Wanderers | ||
| 1988–1989 | Kalulushi Modern Stars | ||
| 1990–1991 | Nkana F.C. | ||
| 1992–1993 | FC Union Berlin | 44 | (17) |
| 1993–1994 | Espérance ST | ||
| 1994–1999 | Kalulushi Modern Stars | ||
| National team | |||
| 1986–1997 | Zambia | 51 | (10) |
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. |
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Biggie Mbasela (24 October 1962 – 1 May 2000), better known as Gibby Mbasela is a former Zambian footballer who played for Kalulushi Modern Stars, Mufulira Wanderers, Nkana Red Devils, 1. FC Union Berlin of Germany and Tunisian champions Esperance. Renowned for his dribbling skills, Mbasela was voted Zambian Footballer of the Year in 1990.
Mbasela was born in Kitwe and after playing youth football and for amateur teams he joined Zambian League Division II side Big Coke in 1983 and moved to Premier League team Kalulushi Modern Stars two years later.
He was one of Stars’ leading performers, winning many admirers with his dribbling skills. He earned the nickname "Cool It" due to his tendency to slow down the game and dribble at his own pace, as well as several other nicknames all in attestation to his ball skills – "Dribbling Wizard," "Mupike" meaning ‘dribble past him,’ "Bapwishe" meaning ‘dribble past them all,’ which he was quite capable of. Early in his career, a newspaper report erroneously gave his first name as Gibby and this was the name he would be known by throughout his career.
At the start of the 1987 season he moved on to a bigger challenge when he signed for Mufulira Wanderers for a transfer fee of K3,000. After an impressive showing as a winger or centre-forward which was rewarded with a Heroes & Unity Cup medal, Mbasela returned to Kalulushi at the end of the season and stayed with Stars for two seasons. He was on the move again but this time to league champions Nkana Red Devils where we would form a deadly partnership with Kenneth "Bubble" Malitoli which helped Nkana win the league championship in 1990. With his distinctive ‘table-cut’ hairstyle, Mbasela created so many opportunities for his strike partner and also weighed in with a fair amount of goals. He was man of the match in the Heroes & Unity Cup final which Nkana won by beating Kabwe Warriors 2-0, scoring the first goal with a glorious strike and setting up the second for Beston Chambeshi. Although Nkana suffered a major disappointment when they lost the Africa Club Champion's Cup to JS Kabylie of Algeria on post-match penalties in Lusaka, Mbasela crowned a fine season with the 1990 top player award. The following season, he won the Charity Shield and the Independence Cup.
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