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Profule: Ben Bamfuchile

“He was true to his faith and delivered the results .Ben was an achiever of the highest order”.

These were the words of football associaton of zambia (FAZ) president Teddy mulonga describing the late former zambia and Namibia national soccer team coach Ben Bamfuchile who died in kitwe last month.Bamfuchile ,who was known as Ben pabili in his playing days, started his football carreer in 1977 with top side nkana football club.he later became the club’s assistant coach whilst playing in the late 1980’s before becoming the full time coach in 1993.

Bamfuchile’s coaching skills earned him recognition by the football association which appointed him national assistant coach to Ian porterfied in 1993 following the 1993 gabon disaster which claimed the entire zambia nationa soccer team.The team went to the nations cup finals a few months later and went all the way to the cup final but lost the final game of the tournament to the star studded super eagles of Nigeria.

Bamfuchile was later sacked but came back as the team’s head coach in 1999 after the geerman buckhard ziese departed following a spill in the team’s performance.After taking over,Bamfuchile made unprecedented record byb recording a 100% record during the 2000 ghana-nigeria Africa cup qualifiers.The team was undefeated in the six group 6 qualifying games.
“The association has lost a dedicated professional and a true patriot.One of the memorable moments was in 2000 when he qualified zambia to the nations cup finals without a loss and witrh the highest points in all qualifying groups.” Said Mulonga.

However,when the team went to the nations cup,it never recorded any victory as they lost 2-0 to egypty in their opener before drawing 1-all and 2-all against Burkina faso and Senegal in their next games respectivrly.This led to the sacking of the whole technical bench which included the late obyy kapita who was bamfuchile’s assistant.
Bamfuchile then went to south Africa where he had a short stint with amazulu football club before returning home to coach his former club’s rivals and town mates power dynamos in 2001.He won six cups with power dynamos.

Bamfuchile was again assigned national duty in 2004 as assistant to kalusha Bwalya before moving to Namibia where he did wonders by qualifying the Namibia national team to their first Africa cup of nations finals appearance since 1998. However , he resigned as the team’s coach due to what he termed “breach of contract promises”.

Bamfuchile had the last breath on this planet on 27th December 2008.He is survived by a wife Tina and six children.

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Zamfoot has written 1962 stories on this site.

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