Who are Zesco United?

In just 12 years, Zesco United have made a meteoric rise from the backwaters of Zambian football, to undisputed local football kings and up to the higher echelons of African club soccer. Zesco has in nine years of campaigning in CAF club competition set the standard for Zambian club’s to follow. The Ndola-based club this year became the first Zambian side to advance from the CAF Champions League group stage and qualify to the semifinals since the mini-league format was introduced in 1997 eclipsing legacy continental entrants like Nkana, Power Dynamos and Green Buffaloes. Zesco’s initial milestone in continental football was set in 2009 when they became the first Zambian club to qualify to the group stage of the premier continental club championship where they finished third in Group A behind Kano Pillars (Nigeria) and El Hilal (Sudan). El Merreikh (Sudan) was the other team in the group. They remain the only Zambian team to play in the elite round robin phase of the competition. Rivals Zanaco and Nkana qualified to this stage, but it was in the second-tier CAF Confederation Cup in 2010 and 2014 where they both finish third in their respective groups. Zesco hails from the quiet Copperbelt administrative capital of Ndola, a city with very little football pedigree. Prior to their arrival on the scene, it looked in envy next door to the mining city of Kitwe where 12-time champions Nkana and six-time league champions Power …

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