Ashious Jordan Melu (6 June 1957 – 20 January 1997), also known as Ashios (or Ashols Melu), was a Zambian

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

and coach. Melu captained the Zambia national team from 1988 to 1992.

Playing career

Melu was born in

Chililabombwe Chililabombwe (formerly named Bancroft) is a small town in Copperbelt Province, Zambia. It is located near the Democratic Republic of the Congo border. The name Chililabombwe means 'place of the croaking frog' in the local language of Lamba. The ...

on June 6, 1957, and attended ''Chililabombwe Secondary School.'' He began playing for the

Konkola Blades Konkola Blades is a Zambian professional football club based in Chililabombwe, that competes in the Zambian Premier League. They play their home games at the 20,000-capacity Konkola Stadium in Chililabombwe. Achievements * Zambian Cup Accordi ...

before moving to

Mufulira Wanderers Mufulira Wanderers are Zambia's most successful football club, based in the Copperbelt town of Mufulira and currently playing in the Zambia National Division One after their 2019/2020 season relegation. Popularly known as Mighty Mufulira Wan ...

in the late 1970s. Melu played as a striker and was the top goal scorer in the Zambian league in 1983, scoring 43 goals, and winning the ''Zambian Footballer of the Year'' award. Alongside

Efford Chabala David Efford Chabala (2 February 1960 – 27 April 1993), popularly known as Efford Chabala was Zambia's first choice goalkeeper from 1983 until his death in a plane crash off the Gabonese coast in 1993 and is one of Zambia's most capped pl ...

Kalusha Bwalya Kalusha Bwalya (born 16 August 1963) is a Zambian former international association football, footballer. He is Zambia national football team, Zambia's Zambia national football team#Most capped players, eighth-most Cap (sport), capped player and t ...

, Frederick Kashimoto, Evans Katebe and the Philemon brothers ( Philemon Mulala and Philemon Kaunda), and later Charles Musonda,

Johnson Bwalya Johnson Bwalya (born 3 December 1967) is a Zambian former professional footballer who played as a forward. He spent most of his career in Switzerland while representing the Zambia national team internationally. With Zambia, he participated at ...

and

Gibby Mbasela Biggie Mbasela (24 October 1962 – 1 May 2000), better known as Gibby Mbasela was a Zambian footballer who played for Kalulushi Modern Stars, Mufulira Wanderers, Nkana Red Devils, 1. FC Union Berlin of Germany and Tunisian champions Esperance ...

, Melu was part of Wanderers team, which was successful in cup competitions in the 1980s, though they never won the league championship. At the beginning of the 1986 football season, Melu changed positions to a defender. Melu represented Zambia at the African Cup of Nations in 1986, in which Zambia was eliminated in the first round. In 1987, Melu won his second Footballer of the Year award. Notably, several other teammates had won the award, such as

(1984) and

(1986).

missed out on the award but won the Sportsman of the Year trophy in 1985. In 1988, Melu took over as Zambian captain when

Fighton Simukonda Fighton Simukonda (2 February 1958 – 15 February 2016) was a Zambian coach and former footballer. A defender, was part of the Nkana Red Devils side of the 1980s, winning five league titles, and he also captained Zambia. As a coach, he won se ...

was dropped after the

President’s Cup The Presidents Cup is a series of men's golf matches between a team representing the United States and an International Team representing the rest of the world minus Europe. Europe competes against the United States in a similar but considerably ...

tournament in June in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

. Later in the year, Melu led the team to the

Seoul Olympic games The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and commonly known as Seoul 1988 ( ko, 서울 1988, Seoul Cheon gubaek palsip-pal), was an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October ...

, in which Zambia became the first African country to reach the quarterfinals. In doing so, Zambia defeated

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

and

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...

along the way with 4-0 scorelines, and lost to

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

by the same margin. From 1989 to 90, Melu played five matches for the top division, Greek side

Apollon Kalamarias Apollon Kalamarias (Greek: Απόλλων Καλαμαριάς) is a Greek sport's club from Thessaloniki founded in 1926. The club is named after Apollo, the mythical Greek god and its colors are red and black. History When thousands of Pontic ...

. Melu later played for an Austrian club for a year before returning to feature for Zambia at the Africa Cup of Nations in 1992 for his final appearance for Zambia. As a result, Melu was not part of the team that perished in the Gabon plane crash disaster the following year.

Coaching career

In 1992, Melu turned to coaching and was first appointed

assistant coach A sports coach is a person coaching in sport, involved in the direction, instruction and training of a sports team or athlete. History The original sense of the word ''coach'' is that of a Coach (carriage), horse-drawn carriage, deriving ultima ...

at the Wanderers, before taking over as head coach. In 1994, he was named Zambia national team assistant coach to

Roald Poulsen Roald Poulsen (born 28 November 1950) is a Danish association football manager, who most prominently won the 1989 Danish championship with Odense BK and managed the Zambia national football team. Poulsen started his coaching career with amateur ...

. He then led the Wanderers to back-to-back league championships in 1995 and 1996, achieving what he did not as a player - giving the Wanderers their first league success since 1978. Before the beginning of the 1997 season, Melu fell ill and died in early 1997.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Melu, Ashious 1957 births 1997 deaths People from Chililabombwe District Zambian men's footballers Zambia men's international footballers Zambian expatriate men's footballers Olympic footballers for Zambia Footballers at the 1988 Summer Olympics 1982 African Cup of Nations players 1986 African Cup of Nations players 1992 African Cup of Nations players Mufulira Wanderers F.C. players Apollon Pontou F.C. players Super League Greece players Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Expatriate men's footballers in Austria Zambian expatriate sportspeople in Austria Men's association football forwards