GEM AND FUTURE CHIPOLOPOLO STAR LEONARD MULENGA
By Osward Hamanyuma Jnr | May 2, 2020
Leonard Mulenga was born on the 26th November 1997 within the capital Lusaka. The midfielder has been a revelation this season, from been an integral player for his club Green Buffaloes to making his national team debut.
Mulenga started his professional football career in 2015 when he was playing for an amateur club named Athletical Cheetahs, a year later he join Division One side Riflemen FC.
Mulenga has scored 2 goals this season including a scorcher against Nkana FC at Heroes stadium.
The combative midfielder had an impressive season at Rifflemen before Green Buffaloes came knocking and acquired him. Life at GBFC started so slow and he did not have much game time at the club especially that he was competing for a place in the starting Xl with the likes of international players Jack Chirwa and Felloni Sitonya.
The 23 year old’s performance has improved drastically that national team coach Milutin Sredojevic was convinced to include him in the squad for the friendly match played against Malawi in Lusaka. Talking about his debut for the national team, Mulenga said, “I felt great and I was motivated, am hoping to do more to play for the national team regularly.”
When asked what plans he has put in place when it comes for the national and what he want to achieve, he said, “I want to achieve a lot with the national team, I have set my eyes on playing at the CHAN Tournament.
am working so hard and am hoping that I can be one of those players who will help the national team to reach the Africa Cup of nations.
Been a defensive midfielder, Mulenga has not been scoring a lot of goals for his club and he thinks he can improve his scoring abilities, “I want to improve my scoring ability because a midfielder need to be scoring.”
Kouyate (central) played 45 minutes on his debut for the national team, Zambia won 1-nil
He named national team and Stellenbosch FC midfielder Nathan Sinkala and Barcelona midfielder as his role models.
‘Kouyate’ as they call him, he is so keen to play his football abroad especially in Europe and has set his focus to play in one of the most decorated league, the English Premier League and Arsenal is on of the clubs he is hoping he can play for.