Zambia 2012 Home, a beautiful story in the history of Football
This is the official Nike Zambia 2012 Home shirt as worn by the side in AFCON 2012. In the year of 1993, Zambia was an African powerhouse poised to win AFCON that year and possibly even qualify for their first ever World Cup. However, things would tragically take a turn for the worse after a plane carrying the Zambian National Football Team would crash off the coast of Libreville, Gabon, resulting in the passing of 18 of the players of the National Team, the team’s head coach and support staff. Zambia would fail to win AFCON that year nor qualify for the World Cup. As this was considered Zambia’s golden generation, their hope was totally lost for football glory after this tragedy. However, in 2012, Zambia would find themselves in the final of an Africa Cup of Nations against a stacked Côte d’Ivoire side with legends such as Didier Drogba, Yaya and Kolo Toure, Titoe, Bony and other greats. What was more, was this final was hosted in Libreville, Gabon just a short distance away from the site of the plane crash in 1993. Drogba would incredibly miss a penalty in normal time, and after a long and hard fought battle, the game would go to penalties. After a Gervinho miss for the Elephants, Stoppila Sunzu would bury his penalty into the back of the net securing the Chipolopolo’s first ever major tournament victory. Against all odds, in a true fairytale of sports, the site of Zambia’s greatest tragedy was turned into their site of greatest triumph.