Ginger Pensulo

John "Ginger" Pensulo (born John Mulenga; 1 June 1934 – 18 April 2021) was a Zambian footballer and coach. A key player for Roan United, he led the club to the Zambian league title in its inaugural season in 1962 and was one of the men behind the team's fluid style of play, being involved in various coaching roles.

Regarded as one of his country's greatest players, Pensulo played for the Northern Rhodesian African national team and was selected for the Zambian team when his country gained independence in October 1964. He scored a significant goal in one of the first ever inter-racial football matches in April 1961, which not only heralded multi-racial football but also helped to usher in Zambia's independence.

Early life Pensulo was born in a village near Mansa and though all his official documents show his birth of date as 1 June 1937, his actual year of birth is 1934. He later explained that he adjusted his age on the advice of a welfare officer at Roan Antelope Copper Mines called Bennie Evans, so that he could stand a good chance of being selected for one of the mine football teams. When Pensulo and his mother moved to Roan Antelope Mine township to join his step father, he started playing football on the streets with other boys in the neighbourhood using tennis balls or balls made from rags, and when youth competitions were introduced between the various sections in the mine townships he began harbouring ambitions of playing for the Roan Antelope and Northern Rhodesia football teams.

Pensulo stopped playing in international and cup competitions in 1968 and restricted himself to league matches. He announced his retirement at the end of the 1970 season, as he felt he was growing old and was stepping back in order to give chance to young players. There were parallel leagues for whites and blacks and as the fight for independence gained momentum, proposals were floated for inter-racial matches and one such match saw a multi-racial in which Pensulo was one of the African players invited to feature for the Roan select team against the all-white Mufulira United.

The match took place in Mufulira which was a political hotbed at the time, and was played under maximum security because ANC cadres had planned to disrupt the game. Pensulo had a good game, scoring the only goal of the match to the applause of the predominantly white crowd and afterwards, the Mufulira manager requested him to remain behind for a surprise that turned out to be a large slice of roast pork but he was too shy to eat and ended up taking it home with him. This was one of the matches that led to the formation of a multi-racial NFL in 1962 and independence from Britain followed two years later. He also featured strongly in the final game against Malawi, as Jackie Sewell’s hat-trick and Willie Kunda's brace led Northern Rhodesia to the trophy with a 5-0 victory.

Later in October of the same year, he featured for Zambia in the country’s independence tournament where they lost all their games against Kenya and Uganda and a second string Ghanaian side, which proved too strong and easily won the trophy.

In June 1967, while playing against the touring John Charles XI, Pensulo suffered a knee injury, which dogged him throughout the remaining years of his career. It was also during this year that he started getting more involved in the Seventh Day Adventist Church after switching from the Roman Catholic Church.

Coaching career Two years after the Leeds trip Pensulo had become player-coach besides being captain. In July 1967, Samuel Ndhlovu was unable to travel to Tanzania with the national team so Pensulo was appointed player-coach for the trip and took charge of the team alongside team manager Albert Musakanya. Zambia drew with Tanzania 2-2 and won the second game 2-1. In 1975, Roan lost the Heroes and Unity Cup final 1-0 to Nchanga Rangers after extra-time but won the hearts of soccer fans and the team was nicknamed “Stylish" Roan United.

Pensulo was also a respected goalkeeping coach. He played a role in the development some of the best goalkeepers that have represented Zambia such as Happy Malama, Emmanuel Mwape, Vincent Chileshe, Kenny Mwape, Ghost Mulenga and Richard Mwanza, who all passed through his hands at Roan.

Although he did not win the league title at the helm of Roan, Pensulo won the Independence Cup in 1977. When Dickson Makwaza took over as coach in 1981, Pensulo continued as part of the technical bench until 1986 when he retired from the mines. He moved to 3rd division Zamefa in 1987 but his stay was short-lived as the team disbanded the following year. In 1989, another division 3 side Mine Police of Luanshya enlisted his services and he helped them win promotion to Division II in 1990. However, he was not happy with the management of the team and left soon afterwards.