30 Facts About Boniface Simutowe

Boniface Simutowe was one of Zambia's greatest midfielders who had a long career as a coach.

Boniface Simutowe later took to coaching and was involved with the national team for several years.

Boniface Simutowe was the second born in a family of 12, eight of whom were boys who all played soccer.

Boniface Simutowe grew up in Roan Township and went to Makoma Primary School after which he began his career under Bennie Evans' Roan Youth Team in 1958 along with future Zambian internationals Sandy Kaposa, Happy Malama and Henry Kasongo.

Boniface Simutowe made his debut for Roan while he was still a schoolboy at Roan Trust School in 1966, and he played regularly alongside players like Ginger Pensulo, Fordson Kabole, Emmanuel Mwape, Ken Banda and Kaposa.

Roan were not prepared to release the duo and warned that if Boniface Simutowe was admitted to the Broken Hill Railways School as a trainee, he would either travel to Luanshya for NFL fixtures or 'watch the game from the touchline.

At Warriors, Boniface Simutowe came into his own, cementing a regular place despite still being a teenager.

Boniface Simutowe, who was constantly in trouble with referees played primarily as a midfielder but he could play all forward positions.

Boniface Simutowe was rewarded with the footballer of the year award and became the youngest man to lift the trophy, two months past his 20th birthday.

Boniface Simutowe won the Sportsman of the Year award, the second footballer to do so after Samuel 'Zoom' Ndhlovu.

Boniface Simutowe ended the season with 55 goals and was runner-up to Kaposa who scored 58.

Boniface Simutowe played a key role in luring Godfrey Chitalu to Warriors in 1971 and in January 1973 he experienced barbarianism in football when Warriors travelled to Madagascar for an African Club Champions Cup second leg tie against Fortier Majunga at the National Stadium in Antananrivo.

Later that year, Warriors surrendered their league title to Zambia Army and at the beginning of the 1975 season, Boniface Simutowe walked out on Warriors, got a job in Luanshya and announced that he would be rejoining his former club Roan United.

Boniface Simutowe then changed his mind and decided to join Division II side Zambia Air Force although it was not a straightforward move as Warriors demanded a transfer fee of K8,000, which was double the record fee of K4,000 which Rhokana United had paid Mufulira Wanderers for Bernard Chanda the previous season.

Boniface Simutowe set about transforming Arrows into a formidable outfit as player-coach.

Boniface Simutowe played on until 1979 when he quit playing to concentrate on coaching.

Boniface Simutowe played all the games at CAN 1974 where Zambia finished as runners-up.

Boniface Simutowe began coaching at an early age when he assisted Warriors coach Lasky Mwandu and was made player-coach in 1969.

Boniface Simutowe quit playing to focus on coaching in 1979 though he still continued to have tiffs with referees.

Boniface Simutowe continued in this role at Arrows and attended a 6-month coaching course in Bonn, West Germany.

Boniface Simutowe was part of the coaching bench when Zambia won their maiden CECAFA trophy in 1984.

The team's executive acted swiftly by appointing Patrick Phiri as player-coach, replacing Boniface Simutowe who was transferred to Livingstone by the Air Force but as fate would have it, the newly promoted Super Division Profund Warriors asked for his services so he quit the Air force and took over the reins at Profund.

Boniface Simutowe served as assistant to Samuel 'Zoom' Ndhlovu and when Ndhlovu resigned in 1992, Simutowe took over the reins with Jochen Figge as Technical Advisor.

Boniface Simutowe was however one of the coaches appointed to constitute a new team after the crash.

Boniface Simutowe was a goalkeeping coach and he served as assistant under Roald Poulsen as well.

Boniface Simutowe took charge of Zambia's U-17 team in 1997.

Boniface Simutowe coached Profund Warriors up until 2005 when management sidelined him for a younger coach.

In 2010, Boniface Simutowe advised Zambian clubs to be patient with their clubs which he said had been infiltrated by politicians and supporters who had 'never kicked a ball in their lives.

Boniface Simutowe was married to Grace Daka with whom he had 6 children.

Boniface Simutowe Junior played for Profund Warriors while Aaron played as a left-back for Zanaco, the Zambia U-20 national team and later played professional soccer in the United States.