Friday, March 29, 2024

Noria Sosala: The experienced goal machine

Cristiano Ronaldo, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Kennedy Mweene, and James Chamanga are among the few select players that are active way into or beyond their thirties.

Born on 25th December 1988, Noria Sosala is the oldest player in coach Bruce Mwape’s squad for the 12th edition of the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations.

Unlike with injuries, Sosala is finally back at the stage with a chance to help the Copper Queens qualify for the World Cup.

The 33-year-old is confident of qualifying for the World Cup for the first time with a lot of hard work.

“Group B is tough but we have to go with the target of winning all group games against our opponents. We have played Cameroon before and won, so everything is possible if we work hard as a team,” Sosala said.

“We have to continue getting good results because having been at the Olympics, the nation expects us to do better at the Women’s Africa Cup. It’s not easy but our target is to play well at the tournament and qualify for the World Cup for the first time.”

Sosala has only played for 2 clubs in Zambia, Starting with the Parliamentarians, and National Assembly, and now with Indeni Roses a career spanning almost two decades.

Sosala played for the Zambia U-20 national team in 2006 and made her Senior National Team debut in 2009.

Sosala is nicknamed Mbesuma after the former Portsmouth forward featured for the Copper Queens at the 2014 Women’s Africa Cup but unfortunately came back injured and on crutches.

Sosala recovered and joined Indeni Roses in 2015 then later like most determined players made her come back even stronger into the National Team as a Captain in 2016 and 2017 but again she was Unfortunately injured in 2017 at the COSAFA Women’s Championship which was held in Zimbabwe.

Sosala scored two goals, one in the 6-3 win over Malawi and the 7-1 win over Madagascar.

Sosala could not walk on her own again and needed crutches.

Since then Noria has been away from the national team but has been a key player for Indeni in helping most young players like Racheal Kundananji, Norin Betani, and Grace Kamanga learn from her experience in the game at the club level as a striker.

Noria was nominated for the most disciplined players category which was eventually won by Mary Wilombe at the first-ever Women’s football awards gala in November last year.

According to her club, Sosala has a clean record on discipline and has never been found with a case of indiscipline.

She has an eye for goals and one of her most remarkable goals was the long-range strike she scored in the semifinal loss to Green Buffaloes in the 2020 Women’s National Championship.

At Indeni, Sosala has managed to score 271 goals so far and was the top scorer for the just-ended Women National League for Zone A with 11 goals and second-best top scorer for combined zones to Xiomala Mapepa of Lusaka Dynamos who managed 17 goals.

The Copper Queens are in Group B at this year’s 12th edition of the WAFCON alongside Cameroon which they will face on 3rd July 2022 before playing against Tunisia three days later and they will wrap up their group assignment with a tie against debutants Togo on 9th July 2022.

The semi-finalists from this tournament will automatically earn their tickets to next year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup to be jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand while the two quarter-finalists will have to battle it out in the inter-continental play-offs for a spot in the world’s biggest showpiece.

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