Malawi football great, Kinnah Phiri, has earned a seat in an exclusive club of the world’s 12 best strikers to have scored over 70 goals for their respective national football teams.
The list includes Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo and Brazilian icon Pele.
During the week, the world’s leading soccer publications and websites, such as Four Four Two, Sky Sports and World Football, named the former Flames coach alongside Ronaldo, who joined the top-10 list after he scored twice in Portugal’s 3-0 win over Hungary last Saturday.
“Records are a little sketchy where Phiri is concerned, but the reliable rsssf.com claims that he plundered 71 in an international career that spanned just over eight years,” reports Four Four Two.
“The striker, who later managed Malawi from 2009-13, struck 43 goals in 55 friendlies, including five in a 5-1 win over Botswana in October 1977. He’ll be best remembered for his efforts in helping Malawi win the 1978 East and Central Africa Challenge (Cecafa) Cup, though, having scored in four of his nation’s six games – including the final.”
In a telephone interview from Tanzania where he coaches Mbeya City FC, Kinnah on Thursday said he was not surprised by the recognition of his distinguished career, which spanned from 1974 to 1985.
“I remember that before I retired from the national team in 1984, records indicated that I scored 40 goals. I have also seen the latest articles and I indeed scored 71 goals,” the Nyasa Big Bullets legend explained.
The world’s top publications sourced the data from football researcher website rsssf.com, indicating that Kinnah was capped 115 times and he is Malawi’s all-time top scorer.
However, Football Association of Malawi (Fam) Transfer Matching System Manager, Casper Jangale, who has also been piecing together domestic football’s lost records, said, so far, Kinnah’s tally was in the
“We are not saying that he did not score the 71 goals but it is a question of verifying records of some games and have the goals certified by Fifa. There are some Cecafa games and friendlies which Fifa did not recognise in those days. Kinnah, indeed, deserves recognition,” Jangale explained yesterday.
An independent football statistician, Mario Antoine, yesterday agreed with the latest findings that Kinnah, who led Malawi to 1978 and 1979 Cecafa Senior Challenge cups, scored 71.
“Kinnah has scored 71 according to my records, see rsssf for his full data,” said the United Kingdom based Malawian who has done research on Malawi football for over 20 years.
The latest records indicate that Ronaldo, with 72 goals, has joined the list comprising Kinnah, Stern John of Trinidad and Tobago (115 caps, 70 goals), Majed Abdullah, Saudi Arabia (147 caps, 71 goals), Miroslav Klose, Germany (137 caps, 71 goals), Sandor Kocsis, Hungary (68 caps, 75 goals), Bashar Abdullah, Kuwait (133 caps, 75 goals) and Pele, Brazil (92 caps, 77 goals).
Other players on the list are Hussein Saeed, Iraq (137 caps, 78 goals), Godfrey Chitalu, Zambia (108 caps, 79 goals), Ferenc Puskas, Hungary (85 caps, 84 goals) and the best of them all Ali Daei, Iran (149 caps, 109 goals).
Leave a Reply