The
naked truth about the distorted history of the world highest goal-scorer in a
season debate - this is the authentic list of world highest goal-scorer but not
yet recognised by FIFA as figures from Godfrey Chitalu and Zico from Brazil are
undergoing internal FIFA review.
The World's Highest Goal-Scorer In A Season
1. Godfrey "UCAR" Chitalu, Kabwe
Warriors and Zambia, 107 Goals (1970)
2. Zico, Flamengo and Brazil, 89 goals (1979)
3. Lionel Messi, Barcelona and Argentina 88
goals (2012)
4. Gerald
Muller, Bayen Munich and Germany, 85 (1972)
6. Cristiano Ronaldo, Real Madrid and Portugal
61 goals (2012)
According
to international records, Godfrey Chitalu scored an unofficial record of 107
goals during 1972. It doesn’t make any sense because he was playing
professional football in Zambia when scoring all these goals.
Chitalu
was nicknamed "UCAR", after he was compared to a battery of that
brand name by commentator Dennis Liwewe the father to well-known SuperSport
voice-over and presenter Pongo Liwewe. Chitalu is a former Zambian national
soccer team coach, died as part of the 1993 Gabon air crash alongside 18
players - may his soul rest in peace.
The
problem with Chitalu achievement is that the Zambia football didn’t receive any
global attention by then due to lack of advanced broadcasting technology, lack
of proper information dissemination system and also the primitive recording
process which resulted in Chitalu incredible record inappropriately captured in
the FIFA archived.
All
the empirical evidence has been collected and ready for submission to FIFA
headquarters. Zambians have commissioned an independent team to investigate the
matter further and file an official dispute to FIFA but I’m glad that FIFA has
started with an internal investigation about Chitalu incredible record.
This
spine of this discussion is not a deliberate move to sabotage Lionel Messi
achievement but to interpret the football history in an appropriate manner.
The
football history has been distorted so the injustice has to be rectified. Zico
from Brazil scored 89 goals which are 4 more than Gerald Muller and 1 more than
Messi but he was also excluded in the list. The Brazil reports concluded that Zico
scored 89 goals in 1979, 81 goals were scored for Flamengo, seven for Brazil
and one in a friendly between Argentina and a Rest of the World XI but
surprisingly his record is not properly archived at FIFA.
It
is a well-known fact that Africa has two biggest records in the history of
football. The FIFA most capped player is the African prodigal son of the soil
from Egypt, Ahmed Hassan with 179 Caps and the highest goal-scorer in a season
is Godfrey Chitalu from Zambia. The world football history must not distorted
to demean and disrespect Africans achievement.
Messi
record of highest goal-scorer belongs to Europe but not in South America and
Africa.
By Owen Mundalamo
