A man should not live by himself, Jehovah should be the spearheader of all his doings for he can’t control his prosperity as said by Jeremiah in the prophecies and historical book he wrote of Jeremiah 11:23, man’s ways does not belong to him instead the scripture of Mathews 6:33 says “keep on, then, seeking first the kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” and that is exactly one man in football is doing. He has centered his life on spiritual morals.
Born on 24th December 1990 at Nchanga hospital of chingola the mining town which is 115 Km from its provincial capital Ndola. He is the 7th born in a family of 7 boys and 2 girls, Fred Joe Silwamba is the man.
His football life
Fred Joe Silwamba grew up playing a plastic ball locally called Chinpombwa from which he realized his potential and joined an amateur team called Craw Hammer FC owned by Craw Hammer trade training institute of Chingola.
It was at Craw Hammer FC where he started being nurtured into a top-class goalkeeper and at the same time he was a pupil at Chingola secondary school and during his school playing days, he helped them win provincial football inter-schools competition to represent their province in the inter-provincial schools’ football showpiece called coca-cola.
It was at the same inter-provincial school football competition where he put up a good shift for his Chingola secondary school to become a sought after name by big top clubs before he was poached by Nchanga Rangers fondly called ‘brave’ of Chingola town the two-time super league champions who by then used to ply their trade in the Zambia super league where he didn’t spend much time as he was lured to sunset stadium the home 7 of time Zambia super league champions the bankers Zanaco FC where he spent a season before being loaned to the lawmakers, parliamentarians National Assembly FC who were campaigning in the FAZ super league by then.
From there he secured a professional move to Lagos Nigeria joining My People FC owned by TB Joshua a nationwide league team, he didn’t sign the contract despite going to Nigeria as he was late for the signing date due to passport and Visa issues which delayed his arrival.
He returned home to National Assembly to carry on with his football journey. In his first stint upon his return, he impressed and was sought after by 5 top clubs among them were Napsa stars, Nkana, Green Buffaloes from which he chose the 6-time super league champions ‘go boys fight and conquer’, Green Buffaloes the army sponsored outfit of Arakan Barracks under the tutelage of Veteran and long-serving Zambian coach, Patrick Phiri in the year 2013.
At the time he signed for the club, they had two great goalkeepers in the name of Mike poto and Davy Kaumbwa and he became a third-choice goalkeeper for the club. It didn’t take long when he started rising to prominence with his great goalkeeping exploits and in 2016 under the tutelage of Zambia’s coaching great, Wedson Nyirenda he started being given enough game time and a season later he was promoted to the position of the first-choice goalkeeper.
He made a debut league appearance for Green Buffaloes on 22nd April 2015 a game in which he kept a clean sheet as it ended in a scoreless draw.
He won the Barclays cup currently called ABSA cup on the local fronts in the year 2015 cruising to a 2 nil win over Nkwazi FC courtesy of Stephen Kabamba header and Jasper Masialeti spot-kick and he has represented the nation at a continental level twice with Green Buffaloes in CAF confederation cup in 2017 and 2018.
Personal football achievements
Fred Joe Silwamba has been a consistent top performer, he has never conceded more than 20 goals in a single season in his football career.
In 2018 whilst in goal, He helped the club to keep more than 20 clean-sheets their best-ever record were they conceded 19 times and he only conceded 15 times during the same year as the club recorded 21 wins,11 draws, and 6 losses scoring a whopping 39 goals an achievement which won him club’s player of the year award at the 2018 club annual awards.
National team
Fred Joe Silwamba has donned the Zambia national team colors on multiple occasions the notable one being the London 2012 Olympics qualifiers where Zambia under 23 bowed out of the race after a 3-2 aggregate loss following a 3 nil loss away to Algeria before they won 2 nil at home in Chingola at Nchanga Stadium under the guidance of Lucky Msiska who was the under 23 coach whose technical bench comprised of by then the Zambia national soccer team Italian born Dario Bonetti trainer. A few years later he received a senior national team call-up during the reign of Honor Janza.
The ZamFoot crew caught up with him at his training base in Lusaka and discussed a lot of things and was asked to point out his best football playing moment so far and was quick to point at the 2018 achievement.
“2018 was my year, I enjoyed it a lot as I helped my team to keep a clean sheet club record and we finished second on the log, I was named the Green Buffaloes 2018 season best player, it was superb,” he said.
He is among the best goalkeepers in the league currently and with the way Green Buffaloes are underperforming at the moment they need him to once again rise to his best to help them avoid as many defeats as they are getting in the current campaign.
