He has played for the Chipolopolo Boys junior set up at the under 17,20,23 level and now he is making his way into the senior Chipolopolo national team and he now plies his trade with high flying Nkwazi at club level where he is a pivotal part of the squad.
He was born on the 21st of July in 1997 in the valley of Maamba in Sinazongwe district of Southern Province with a lot of responsibilities on his shoulders as he is first in the family of two, comprising of him and the sister.
According to a famous quote by an American logician who is the emeritus Hillman University Professor of Computer Science, Philosophy, and Mathematical Logic at Carnegie Mellon University, Dana Stewart Scott “Learn as much as you can while you are young, since life becomes too busy later, and Muntanga did just that by doing his primary and junior secondary education at Maamba Private School then went on to do his senior secondary at Choma secondary school.
Many football players start playing the sport from a young age but for the Nkwazi shot-stopper, He grew up playing golf as he drew inspiration from his late parents who were golfers.
“I grew up playing golf cause both of my parents were golfers but due to circumstances beyond my control, I switched to football,” Muntanga told the ZamFoot Crew in an exclusive interview.
Muntanga grew up in Maamba but due to the demanding nature of life when one is growing, he had to move to Choma to seek greener pastures. It was in choma where he joined his well first established football team sponsored by the municipality a team called Council cutters which were campaigning in division two under the tutelage of one great Billy Chikalaba.
“As earlier stated I never grew up playing football but golf and I only came to start playing football when I moved to Choma and I loved playing golf. Sometimes I think of completely following golf as it reminds me of a lot,” he said.
Muntanga went on to explain his early career experience under the shadow of Toaster Nsabata at Zamcoal Diggers and Nchanga Rangers.
Striving to be good is the ultimate struggle of every man, Despite having few minutes between the sticks, Charles Muntanga would prove himself to be one of the few best young goalkeepers of his era when given chance as he was picked to represent the nation at the under 17 during Airtel rising stars tournament which was held in Nigeria where he emerged as best goalkeeper a thing which attracted Nchanga Rangers, a super league outfit than to bring him to Chingola.
“After two years of football at council cutters, I then moved to my hometown Maamba to join zamcoal diggers but I didn’t have much game time due to stiff competition in the goalkeeping department as the team had Toaster Nsabata.”
“Nchanga Rangers came on board for my services after an impressive outing at the Airtel rising stars tournament in Nigeria and I moved to the Chingola based team for the 2013/2014 season under the late Fighton Simukonda but hey again I didn’t have game time as I found Toaster Nsabata as the first choice for the team,” he added.
In search of regular game time, Charles Muntanga had to move to the capital of Zambia to join the police-sponsored outfit in Nkwazi under the mentorship of Elijah Chikwanda where he took the team to the 2015 Barclays cup finals only to lose to Green Buffaloes.
Such magnitude of talent should have or should at least test what it feels to carry the expectations of over 18,000,000 plus Zambia people. Just 23 years and 339 days, Charles Muntanga has a lot of experience of representing Zambia in the men’s football category at all levels.
He has represented the nation at under 17, under 20 at the junior Africa cup of nations in Senegal. He has played at under 23 during the Malawi and congo Brazzaville qualifying matches for the 2020 Egypt Africa cup of nations. His senior national team debut came in the game against Ivory Coast in Abu Dhabi of the United Arab Emirates in an international friendly match.
Football has a lot to do with memories and moments and Charles Muntanga was asked to pick one of his best football playing moments so far and where he wants to be in the next coming years.
“My best football moment is the 2020/2021 season as have performed beyond my expectations by keeping 15 clean sheets in 26 games and I think every player’s dream is to play professional football outside Zambia,” Muntanga said.
Nkwazi wrapped up the 2020/2021 season with a 1-1 away draw to Forest Rangers finishing the season in eighth place with 48 points, just three shy of the top four slots.
