By: Augustine Mukonko | Bola Yapa Zed| 19th November 2025
Against Angola, Mangani Banda, like Francis Mwansa, played 45 minutes (second half). My rate card shows Mangani performed a grade above Mwansa.
Ironically, between 2017 todate, Mwansa has nonetheless received more senior national team call-ups than Mangani. He was even considered for call-ups when he was second choice at Green Buffaloes.
Based on Mangani’s Under-20 showing in 2017 in which he won the Africa Youth Championship and later represented Zambia at the FIFA Under-20 World Cup that same year, I would have expected him to have been part of a gradual elevation process the last decade.
He was not even considered for the U-23 which was eliminated from the Olympic race. Somehow, our national team structures seemed to have discarded Mangani. There was no deliberate effort to ensure we kept tabs on him.
The lad struggled, possibly lost confidence and his form dipped until he seems to have fought back to where he now is. Granted, Mangani’s greatest challenge is height – that’s something he can’t control.
However, there are some good attributes he compensates his lack of average goalkeeper height for. If you watched the game, here are some of his good attributes.
➡ Confidence – he bullied tall strikers in his territory and on a couple of occasions, out-jumped and won aerial balls.
➡ Agility – he has some good reflex. He could have done better on the goal he conceded if he was not flat-footed, but his reflex remains intact.
➡ Defence Organization – as the last man in the line of defence, a goalkeeper sees what infield players don’t. How the goalkeeper commands the defenders when out of position can help a team keep a clean sheet. Mangani was yelling, giving instructions and making sure his defenders were alert. He was playing the typical brother’s keeper role.
➡ Ball Distribution – Mangani was being a typical modern-day goalkeeper. His footwork is equally good and has the potential to help a team soak in some pressure and calm a tense match.
For a goalkeeper with such attributes, I don’t know why he has not been making at least one of the three spots on the national team.
I have watched the goalkeepers summoned to national duty the last 10 years for Chipolopolo. I am left wondering why Mangani has not been among the three that have been making it.
VERDICT: Mangani is a lad our systems and structure has mismanaged in the last 10 years. A goalkeeper making it to the World Cup at U-20 is a sign enough there is potential to nurture, but we didn’t do it for Mangani. Imagine the experience he would have gathered if he was a regular senior national team call-up.
Forget the height disadvantage. Mangani measures between 1.70m to 1.74m. Former Chipolopolo goalkeeper Davis Phiri is estimated to measure 1.75m.
The standard height for a goalpost in professional football is 2.44m. That’s why the average goalkeeping height most teams prefer for men is between 1.88m to 1.95m.
However, there are some exceptions that don’t make the average height. Mexican Jorge Campos was only 1.70m.
Evidently, we have used height against Mangani instead of working with his other good attributes to produce a stable Chipolopolo goalkeeper. I hope we can learn from this.
Best wishes to Kennedy Mweene as he now steps into his new role as Zambia goalkeeper coach to find a reliable Chipolopolo Numero Uno (#1).
