Christopher Katongo

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Personal information
Chris Katongo
Full name	Christopher Katongo
Date of birth	31 August 1982 (1982-08-31) (age 25)
Place of birth	Mufulira, Zambia
Height	1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Playing position	Forward, right-winger
Club information
Current club	Brøndby IF
Number	28
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
-1999 1999-2001 2001-2004 2004-2007 2007-present	Butondo Western Tigers Kalulushi Modern Stars Green Buffaloes FC Jomo Cosmos Brøndby IF	075 (20) 109 (35) 064 (35) 024 (5)
National team
2003-	Zambia	40 (9)
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 20 May 2008. * Appearances (Goals)

Christopher Katongo (born 31 August 1982 in Mufulira) is a Zambian football (soccer) player, who plays as a striker for Brøndby IF in the Danish Superliga. He has played 40 matches for the Zambian national team. His younger brother is Felix Katongo.

He started his career playing for a trio of Zambian clubs, before moving to South African team Jomo Cosmos in 2004. Playing in just 15 games of the 2006-07 Premier Soccer League season, to make him the league's leading goal scorer. He is renound all around the world for screwing peoples bets up because he is a very fit player who celebrates each goal with an acrobatic cartwheel and back flip celebration. During the January 2007 transfer window, he agreed to a four-year contract with Brøndby IF in the Danish Superliga championship.[1]

[edit] Brøndby career

On March 11, 2007, in his Superliga debut, Katongo netted each of Brøndby's two goals, propelling the home-side to a 2-0 win over league rival FC Nordsjælland. His trademark sequence of back flips after the second goal electrified the cheering Brøndby fans.

On September 9, 2007, as captain of Zambia's Chipolopolo, he scored a hat-trick within 20 minutes of the match to help Zambia humiliate South Africa's Bafana Bafana to their heaviest home defeat (1-3) since World Cup winning Brazilian Coach Carlos Alberto Parreira took over the team. But more significantly the win helped Zambia to unsurp Bafana Bafana from the summit of the group table and qualify for the African Cup of Nations in Ghana in 2008. Zambia went into this match as underdogs but they surprised even themselves by beating South Africa by that scoreline. Because of this hat-trick, he was promoted to Sergeant from corporal by the Zambian army and following his impressive performance in Ghana 2008 Africa Cup of Nations, where he scored two goals, he was promoted from Sergeant to Staff Sergeant.[2]

Nicknamed "The Tsunami", Katongo scored 7 goals in the final 14 games of the 2007-2008 season (in all competitions). He also set-up the winning goal late in the second half of the 2008 Danish Cup Final.