Mufulira Wanderers F.C.
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| Full name | Mufulira Wanderers Football Club |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | Mighty Abena Milambo (The people from Milambo) |
| Founded | 1953 |
| Ground |
Shinde Stadium Mufulira |
| Capacity | 12,000 |
| Manager | Ahmed Suliman |
| League | Zambian Super League |
| 2016 | 11th |
Mufulira Wanderers are Zambia’s most successful football club and are based in the Copperbelt town of Mufulira. Popularly known as Mighty Mufulira Wanderers, the club has won 50 trophies and has also produced some of the country’s greatest players. After nine years in Division I, the Wanderers returned to the Zambian Super League in 2015 and have enjoyed two successive seasons in the top league.
Mufulira Wanderers Football Club was formed in 1953 as Mufulira Mine Team when mine workers demanded their own team to rival the town’s municipal-run team Mufulira Football Club which later became Mufulira Blackpool. So the Mufulira Mine Team came into existence from the merger of teams that took part in tribal matches and like Blackpool, affiliated to the Copperbelt African Football Association. The team played their games at Mutende ground and was coached by Welfare Officer Jim Crow.
The British influence was unmistakable in the names Blackpool and later Wanderers, as well as the striped shirts that both teams wore. Some of the first players in the Wanderers team were Dominic Mwenya, George Kangwa, Joseph Choongo, Fidelis Bwete, McLean Kabwe, Alphonso Bwalya and Penius "Kapenta" Chirwa.
The newly formed team competed favourably against teams like Roan Mine, Nchanga Mine, Rhokana Mine, Luanshya All Blacks, Chingola Eleven Wise Men, Bancroft North End and town mates Blackpool. Apart from the main team, the club had two reserve sides whose games would precede those of the first team on match day.
In 1956, Samuel “Zoom” Ndhlovu, who would go on to become Wanderers’ most iconic figure and Zambia’s greatest forward of the sixties, joined the team from Kankoyo Mine School and started out in the third team. He was joined by George Sikazwe the following year and the two were the youngest members at the club. By 1959, goalkeeper Bwete and the trio of Ndhlovu, Sikazwe and Chirwa had formed a combination which would launch the team to greater heights. The same trio was co-opted into the welfare section of mine community development as club organizers together with Harwood Chimaliro, who would go on to serve as Wanderers’ administrator for 20 years until his retirement in 1978.
In 1960, coach Crow and the club organizers went on a recruitment drive of talented youths at the various club centres within the mine township. This was how Laurent Chishala, Willie Kunda and Elijah Mwale became part of the team. Others were brothers Goodson and Sandford Mvula, Kenneth Simwanza, Joseph Menzu, Patrick Nkole and Rodson Chewe. The two reserve teams were still a feature so there was a steady supply of players and competition for places in the first team, of which Ndhlovu, Sikazwe and Chirwa were now part of, was very stiff.
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