Zambia wins Afcon

It was a symbolic moment when Zambia clinched Afcon in Gabon, almost two decades after the team of 1993 died in a plane crash.

When Zambia beat the star-studded Ivory Coast 8-7 on penalties on Sunday, it symbolised the resurrection of the once-promising side that had been wiped out in a plane crash in 1993. Earlier in the game, Ivory Coast's Captain Didier Drogba, who’s a Chelsea striker and African Footballer of the Year 2006 and 2009, missed a penalty. He probably regretted the lost opportunity when his side lost on penalties to Zambia, who had been considered dark horses by many pundits.

Despite being the first time that Chipolopolo – as the Zambian football team is affectionately known – lifted the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) trophy, the victory was especially symbolic as the plane that carried the side’s 25 players and officials some 19 years ago had crashed about 500m from the coast of Libreville, Gabon, where Sunday's final was played.

It was reported that a few days before the final, the current crop of Zambian players laid flowers on the shore not far from where the squad of 1993 and officials crashed. The flight had been en route to a World Cup qualifier in Senegal when it crashed shortly after refuelling in Libreville. The country’s French-born Coach, Herve Renard, dedicated his team’s win to Kalusha Bwalya – arguably the best footballer to hail from Zambia – who would have been on the fatal plane had he not made his own way to Senegal. Bwalya, currently President of the Football Association of Zambia, played in six editions of Afcon and was nominated African Footballer of the Year in 1988.

Renard said: "Kalusha is one of the best Zambian players of the last century," Renard said. "Then he was coach of the national team, now our president.

"He knows how terrible this crash was for the nation. I want to dedicate this title to him, he gave me my chance when nobody knew me."