When it Comes to Skill Zambia has produced alot of Legends with that quality.Dribbling is one such skill these legends were known for but in this article we look at one of the best ever Zambian Dribbling gods Biggie Mbasela better Known as Gibby Mbasela.
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
According to Zed Millionaires Facebook page Gibby Mbasela dribbled Bruce Grobbelar so badly that the former LIVERPOOL keeper ended up kneeling infront of him.With such a pedigree Mbasela was surely in a class of own .
Playing career
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 atthe 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.
After starring for Zambia at CAN 1992, Mbasela was signed by German second division club 1. FC Union Berlin during the German winter break. His first game for
Union Berlin was against FC Hertha 03 Zehlendorf on 10 May 1992 which they won 7 – 0. He made an immediate impact
scoring 4 goals in his first 5 matches and stayed at Union for one and half seasons, scoring 17 goals in 44 appearances.
In July 1993 Mbasela was on the move again this time to Tunisian giants Esperance after turning down a number of offers including one from Saudi Arabian club Al Shabab.
He stayed at Esperance for a single season and left in June 1994 to return to Kalulushi Modern Stars.
After a serious injury sustained while playing for Zambia in a World Cup qualifier against Zaire in Harare in April 1997, Mbasela was out of action for two seasons but returned for Modern Stars in
a league game against Zanaco on 27 June 1999 in Lusaka and lasted the entire 90 minutes and gave a good account of himself on the pitch.He however retired from football at the end of the year.
National team
Mbasela was first called to the National team in 1986 by coach Brightwell Banda and made his debut when Zambia travelled to Malawi for a two-game friendly series in June 1986. He also
played in a friendly against Zaire which Zambia lost 1-0 in Lusaka in September of the same year. He was then left out of the team until the following year’s CECAFA
tournament where Zambia was
eliminated in the first round.
He was out of the team for most of 1988, missing out on the Seoul Olympic Games but returned for that year’s CECAFA tournament in Malawi, scoring 3 goals in Zambia’s run to the final where they lost 3-1 to the hosts after extra-time.
Mbasela scored a goal when Zambia beat Egypt 2-1 in a friendly at Nkana stadium
on 20 December 1988 and the following year featured prominently in the 1990 World Cup qualifiers.
He made 51 Appearances for Chipolopolo scoring 10 goals.He started showing signs of Ill health in 2000 and was taken to Kabwe General Hospital where he died on may 1 2000 aged 37.
Honours
Zambian Premier League: 1989, 1990
Heroes & Unity Cup: 1987, 1989
Independence Cup: 1989
Charity Shield: 1989, 1990, 1991
Individual Awards
Zambia player of the year 1990
CAF Champions League
Simba lose to Al Ahly at home in first leg Quarter-final
CAF Champions League
CAF Announce dates CAF CL and CC Finals
