By Ponga Liwewe
Stalking the penalty box like his nickname, Mukango – the lion, Stone Nyirenda once again struck with deadly accuracy.
Another victim had fallen. At his peak, Stone Nyirenda was unmatched in the goal scoring department.
Between 1986 and 1990, when he led the line for the national team, he was as prolific as any goal scorer in African football.
Before he won his first cap for the national team, a burst of speed and an eye for goal was what put him in the spotlight, attracting the attention of two of the top football clubs in the Zambian premier league, Power Dynamos and Nchanga Rangers. Both had been eying him for some time but it was Dynamos that moved faster.
On his arrival in Kitwe, Nyirenda began training with the team and was temporarily accommodated at the Power Dynamos camp house in Nkana East.
Yet, before he had even had a chance to show what he could do in the yellow jersey, he had disappeared in the dead of the night, a move supposedly engineered by the Nchanga Rangers chairman himself, Francis Temba. Temba, a tough talking, no-nonsense mine manager who was the key man behind Nchanga Rangers resurgence in those years.
Nyirenda’s football career took off in Chifubu Township where he grew up and went to Chifubu G Primary School before moving on to Fibobe Primary. Playing football at every opportunity, in the township and at school, laid the foundation for greater things to come. He completed his education at Chifubu Secondary School and began to play for an amateur team, Bulk Carriers FC. He quickly moved up the ladder with several recurring spells at Zesco United, Ndeke Eagles and Ndola Lime.
After the Power Dynamos debacle, he established himself at Nchanga Rangers and quickly justified all the trouble Rangers had gone through to secure his signature. It was to be a move that would set Rangers up to mount a credible challenge to the best teams the league, and to be rated among most exciting teams on the pitch during that era.
When the 1987 season began, Nyirenda came out of the starting blocks, scoring goals almost at will alongside the effervescent Webby Chikabala. Behind them the creativity of Benjamin Bwalya and Simon Mwansa was a catalyst for goal scoring. On the flanks, Geoffrey Mulenga on the left and Bruce Mwape on the right, constantly dribbled past full backs for a plentiful supply of crosses that Nyirenda converted.
Between the start of the season and the halfway point, from March to June 1987, Nyirenda scored 26 league goals. Such prolific goalscoring didn’t go unnoticed. He was instrumental in Nchanga Rangers getting to the semi-final of the Heroes and Unity Cup final against a Mufulira Wanderers side equally brimming with talent. When Wanderers took an early lead, it looked as if all was lost as the clock ran down and Rangers desperately searched for the equaliser. Deep into injury time, Rangers won a last-ditch corner kick. Nyirenda rose magnificently to head the ball past Mufulira Wanderers goalkeeper Efford Chabala to level the score, 1-1.
The Mufulira Wanderers players couldn’t believe what had just happened. They were seconds away from reaching the final of the 1987 Heroes and Unity Cup final. It was typical Stone Nyirenda. Within a week of that goal, he was off to Belgium to try out with Roselare, the club that featured his Zambia teammate, Lucky Msiska. In his absence Rangers lost the replay 1-0. Earlier, two other Zambian players had gone onto become prominent players in the Belgian premier league for Cercle Brugge. Kalusha Bwalya and Charles Musonda would take the club to unprecedented heights during their time there.
Nyirenda’s unprecedented goal-scoring streak saw him end the 1987 season as the leading scorer despite his departure, a feat only Christopher Katongo would emulate when he did the same in South Africa after he left for Denmark but still won the top scorers award way before the end of the season with 15 goals..
Few months into the Belgian league, and in the next transfer window, Nyirenda made a move from Roselare to Harelbeke where he would go on to have a prolific scoring streak for many seasons, becoming a club legend in the process.
Nyirenda’s form, before his departure for Belgium, earned him a call up to the senior national team and he stepped into the boots of Nkana forward, Michael Chabala, who had been so magnificent in the 4-1 destruction of Cameroon a year earlier. Nyirenda was on fire. He was called up after the 1986 Africa Cup of Nations when following loss of form, Michael Chabala, lost his place to Chilufya Mwenya who featured as the lead striker during the tournament. Mwenya’s time was short-lived, however, and in stepped Nyirenda to make the role his own.
In 1987, Zambia and Malawi clashed in the qualification round for the All-Africa Games in Algeria. Both sides had recently seen the introduction of new, exciting generations of players who played two explosive matches. In Lusaka, Stone Nyirenda scored twice as Zambia ran out 3-1 winners. His goals appeared to have given Zambia a solid cushion for the second leg, but Malawi had other ideas. A young Kennedy Malunga had stolen the show in Lusaka, dazzling with an amazing array of skills. He would be equally influential in the second leg as Malawi won 2-0 to qualify on the away goal rule.
When the qualifying round for the 1988 Olympic Games began with two matches against Botswana, Zambia won 4-0 away and in the second leg match in Lusaka, Nyirenda scored in a 3-0 win.
In the second round, after a 2-1 loss away to Uganda Cranes, the return leg was comprehensively won with Nyirenda scoring twice in a 5-0 win. Zambia then beat Ghana to qualify to the Seoul Olympics in a tough, thrilling two-legged encounter, winning 2-0 and losing 1-0 in the second leg.
On 28th June 1987, in a friendly match against Cote d’Ivoire, the free-scoring Nyirenda got two more goals in a 2-0 win for Zambia as the team geared up for the upcoming Olympic Games.
In 1988, at the Olympic Games in Seoul, when the impressive Iraq national team took the lead against Zambia, it looked like the tournament could unravel in failure. Nyirenda had other ideas, scoring a magnificent header at the far post to bring Zambia back into the game when they were 1-0 down, in a 2-2 draw. He was firmly in the driving seat as the lead striker. Zambia reached the quarter final in splendid form, including a 4-0 win over Italy that shook world football.
In 1989, Zambia began the quest to qualify to the 1990 world cup in Italy. The Olympic Games performance meant Zambia was considered one of the favourites to reach the world cup, despite being in a difficult group that included Zaire, Morocco and Tunisia. They began the series disappointingly with a 1-0 away loss to Morocco and needed to be on top form to claw three points back in the home leg. Nyirenda lined up with the tireless Wisdom Chansa, Kalusha Bwalya and Lucky Msiska as Zambia took the game to their highly rated north African opponents in the return match. Zambia won the match 2-1. Nyirenda was not on the scoresheet but found his scoring boots in the next match, against an industrious Zairean team full of European-based players and managed by the well-respected German coach, Otto Pfister.
With the Independence Stadium filled mid-morning for an afternoon kick off, Nyirenda got the all-important second goal in a 4-2 win that put Zambia on top of the group. The qualification would go down to the wire. Going into the final group match against Tunisia, away from home, Zambia’s dream ended fifteen minutes before the end of the match when a ferocious free-kick beat Efford Chabala. Nyirenda however, had cemented himself as the most outstanding centre-forwards in recent times.
Nyirenda will always be remembered for his goal-scoring prowess, his ability to finish chances and his eye for goal. He came to the fore when Zambia was in need of a natural striker and during his time in the team, left a mark that defines him as one of the national team’s prolific goal scorers with an excellent goal-to-game ratio.
