MTL Wanderers

MTL Wanderers
Nickname(s) The Nomads
Ground Kamazu Stadium
Blantyre, Malawi
(Capacity: 50,000)
Chairman James Chikowi
Manager Rahman Gumbo
League TNM Super League
2007 2nd

MTL Wanderers are a Malawian football (soccer) club based in Blantyre. They are one of Malawi's greatest and successful football clubs.

Contents

History

They boast to have the second largest support base after their arch rivals and sworn enemies on the field Big Bullets. Even though there are no real stats on the number of fans the two teams have, it is estimated that Big Bullets have a slightly bigger fan base than Wanderers.

Recent Memorable Derbys

The rivalry between Big Bullets and Mtl wanderers starts to kick off every time both clubs meet in 2006-07 both clubs met wanderers went ahead in the first half. Deep second half Bullets scored a goal but it was offside. The Bullets fans went angry started throwing things on to the pitch and the ref in charge abandoned the game, Wanderers had won that match 3-0 because of disqualification. The two teams have met domestic in cup finals fews times since the early 1990s, most notably the 1999 Malawi Carlsberg Cup final. The match ended 1-1 after 90 minutes and went to extra time, Wanderers scored a dramatic goldengoal to lift the cup. Few years later Bullets got their revenge when they beat Wanderers 1-0 in 2001 final of the same cup, to make matters worse it was wanderers oldboy Mc Donald Yobe who scored the only against his former employers. The infamous 2003 final, probably the most anticipated, the two teams clashed in final of the same comptetion, wanderers took an early lead in the first half when their wonderkid Joseph Kamwendo scored, he was only 17 at the time. Bullets equalised through their veteran striker [Ganizani m'bobo Malunga]. Wanderers score two more goals but were disollowed for offside. This caused the fans to clash in the terraces, the match was abandoned and has never been replayed. In the local papers, it was reported that bullets fans burnt a house of one of wanderers directors, a well known polician. Due to crowd troubles carlsberg ended their sponsorship and other companies have also terminated contracts most notably Bp Top 8, Malawis biggest football comptetion in terms of prize money to date. The pair clashed again in the semi final of this trophy, wanderers won 3-1 to reach the finals. This time it was Bullets fans against the riot police in the stands and went on to the streets of Blantyre. Wanderers went on to win the trophy after beating northern regions biggest club Moyale Barracks FC 1-0 in Lilongwe.

Wanderers can boast to have contributed a lot to the Malawi's football history as they have supplied some of the best football players to play in the National Team over the years. Some of these players include Yasin Osman, Jack Chamangwana, The Malunga Brothers, Horman and Kenedy and so many more.

One of the most prolific players who played for Wanderers but surprisingly did not go on to play their game elsewhere outside the country or even the continent are the Mpinganjira Brothers Bob and Albert.

Due to sponsorship questions, the team was previously known has Limbe Leaf Wanderers and Telecom Wanderers

Achievements

1990, 1995, 1997, 1998, 2006
2004
1999
2005
2004, 2006
2008

Performance in CAF competitions

1997 - Preliminary Round
1998 - First Round
1999 - First Round
2000 - First Round

Notable players

  • Walter Nyamilandu
  • Yasin Osman
  • James Sangala
  • Hudge Tambala
  • McDonald Yobe
  • Sandros Kumwenda