Football legend Freddie Mwila Snr, who captained Zambia and coached Power Dynamos to the 1991 Cup Winners' Cup, dies aged 80

Former Zambia national team captain and coach Freddie Mwila Snr has died at the age of 80. His family spokesperson, Lillian Kalikeka, confirmed that he died of a stroke at Maina Soko Medical Centre in Lusaka at about 01:00 on Monday 2 November 2026. Mourners are gathering at the family home at Mapepe Farms in Chilanga. Mwila made his Zambia debut in 1965, aged 18, and captained the side that won the 1967 Jamhuri Cup against Kenya. He was among the first Zambians to play professional football abroad, joining the Atlanta Chiefs in 1967 with Emment Kapengwe and Howard Mwikuta. Atlanta won the league in 1968, and Mwila scored twice in a 3-2 win over Manchester City that May. He also faced Santos and Pele, then joined Aston Villa with Kapengwe in August 1969 and stayed about nine months. He played at Zambia's first Africa Cup of Nations, in Egypt in 1974, where the team lost the final to Zaire after a replay. He scored a hat-trick in a 6-1 win over Lesotho in a 1972 World Cup qualifier and finished with 15 goals for his country. As a coach he made his name at Power Dynamos. His first spell began in 1979 and brought three Independence Cup titles and the 1984 league championship, and he took the club to the 1982 Cup Winners' Cup final, lost to Egypt's Arab Contractors. He was named Zambia's Coach of the Year in 1984. In 1991 he led Power to the African Cup Winners' Cup, beating Nigeria's BCC Lions 5-4 on aggregate, and to the league title. Power remains the only Zambian club to win a continental club competition. He also coached other Zambian clubs and the Botswana national team, took charge of Zambia after Roald Poulsen left in November 1996, and was on the technical bench in the rebuilding after the 1993 Gabon air disaster, working as an assistant at the 1992 Africa Cup of Nations. He had stayed largely out of active football after a road accident in South Africa in October 2003 that broke both his legs. The driver, Malawian coach Robert Banda, died in that crash. ##