Harrison Chongo

Harrison "Wawa" Chongo (5 June 1969 – 12 May 2011) was a Zambian professional footballer who played as a centre-back or defensive midfielder. He made 13 appearances for the Zambia national team.

Harrison Chongo

Personal information
Date of birth	(1969-06-05)5 June 1969
Place of birth	Mufulira, Zambia
Date of death	12 May 2011(2011-05-12) (aged 41)
Place of death	Mufulira, Zambia
Position(s)	Defender, defensive midfielder
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1988–1992	Mufulira Wanderers
1992–2002	Al Taawon
International career
1992–1998	Zambia	13
* Club domestic league appearances and goals

Career

Born in Lusaka, Chongo began playing club football Mufulira Wanderers, breaking into the first team in 1989. In 1992, he joined Al Taawon Club in the Saudi First Division, where he played until he retired.^{[1][citation needed]}

Chongo was included in the Zambia national team that reached the final for the 1994 African Nations Cup.^[2] He also played in 11 FIFA World Cup qualifying matches.^[3] and Wawa is regarded as the first Zambian footballer ever to have played professional football for Arabs for a decade in Saudi Arabia and once attended trials for two Premier league sides, Crystal Palace and Barnsley, after assisting his Saudi-based club Al-Tawoon for winning promotion to Saudi professional league this time as champions for the first time ever in 1996–97 season, he impressed during the trials in England in 1997 despite being overpriced as their defense kingpin and the deal fell through. Nevertheless, he achieved so much and made a second coming for his childhood team Mufulira Wanderers to wrap up his playing career in 2002 as coach player and became appointed as interim coach in 2010 and helped the team survive relegation from sinking into division 2. At the start of the 2011 season he was given a go-ahead as a head coach for the first time and managed to run the eight-game unbeaten race despite death cutting short his dream for bouncing "mighty" to the super league.

Personal

He died in May 2011 of malaria. At the time of his death he was head coach of Mufulira Wanderers.^[4]