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Who is Zambia’s best-attacking? Charles Musonda the star attacking midfielder of the 1988 Olympique squad that thrashed Italy was a quality midfielder, take nothing away from him but Rainford Kalaba at prime was a cut above comparison.
Joe Bwalya pulled strings in the Zambian Midfield that dusted the misfortunes of calamity to storm the Africa cup final in 1994. He was a general in his own rights but Kalaba remains the most potent attacking midfielder Zambia has ever produced by far.
Maybe just maybe, we dig deep and as far back as 1974 and rebeam some HD view and postmortem of Ackim Musenge and Fred Mwila. Video analysis reviews they were masters of working together. They attacked and defended the Zambian budge with such character and personality. Going foward, their ingenuity, stealth, endurance and dexterity remains unmatched but nothing close to Kalaba’s prowess on the ball. He was the epi center of intriguing diversity.
More On Rainford Kalaba
Relative to size, Rainford Kalaba the star attacking midfieder of the golden class of 2012 had the strongest bitting power in his legs in the entire Zambian football narrative.
When he first appeared on the Zambian football scene in a green and orange over sized Afrisport Jersy in 2003, Mupashi was only 16. So dimunitive that he sometimes disappered in the sea of opponent shirts on the field but that small stature aided him with some demon balance, combutiveness and killer acceleration once the ball kissed his feet.
Its a quality that made many believe he was a snake because he was so quick witha the ball that his opponents believed he disappeared from their sight.
The midfield maestral had such supersonic vision, an insatiable appetite for goals coupled with a ruler in his wicked right foot. The pulling power in his legs was a destructive barrage of artelary.
Two qualities defined and shaped him to the top of the African football pyramid: Cunning and Boldness.
Rainford was the master of theft and trickery. He stole the ball from the feet of his opponents with such magical easy then raced in the path of the next opponent with the stolen ball glued to his feet like his legs had magnet. As the opponent tracked in a backward spiral for cover, the next thing the defender would hear was a rapture of screams and applause from the terraces while he remains sitted on the ground dusting grass from his mouth. Kalaba was not human.
From Afrisport to Nice in France, to Zesco United then Braga and Gil vicente, to Leira and now at now captaining T.P Mazembe in the DRC, he remains the most decorated Zambian footballer of all time.
In his scintillating trophy cabinet are 16 gold medals punctuated by a Zambian player of the year award in 2007. An AFCON gold medal, Seven Linafoot titles creamed by a CAF champions league win in 2015, Two super Cups and two more CONFED cups make him by far the best central attacking midfielder the country has ever produced.
His ability with the ball was insane and remains by far Zambia’s best-attacking midfielder the country has ever had.
