AFCON 2012: the night out that cost Clifford Mulenga an African champion's medal

" Unfortunately for me, I was unable to control my emotions that night. " Years later, Clifford Mulenga has held his hands up. Zambia won the 2012 AFCON, co-hosted by Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, but the midfielder was not on the podium with the rest of the Chipolopolo when they lifted the trophy, won on penalties against Ivory Coast. Only 22 players received their medals instead of 23, because a few days earlier Mulenga had been thrown out of the squad for "disciplinary reasons", without having played a single match.

Thrown out of the AFCON without playing a minute

The reason? The man named best young African player at the 2007 CAF Awards, along with four other team-mates, broke the curfew set by the Zambian staff to go out on the town and celebrate the win over Equatorial Guinea on the final day of the group stage, and with it the team's place in the quarter-finals. The small group paid a heavy price for that night out the following day, when Hervé Renard and his staff discovered that some players had sneaked out.

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"People said I broke the curfew to go out drinking. Yes, I did. It was after a match we had just won and we had qualified for the quarter-finals. The guys I went out with fancied a beer to celebrate. There were five of us who went out. We didn't get anyone's permission, but the captain knew we were going out. Since he didn't say anything, it was as if he was giving us permission. Despite wanting to celebrate qualifying, thinking back, it wasn't the right time to go out", Clifford Mulenga recalled on Kenndy Gondwe's show Studio Ken.

Renard's flash of temper

As well as financial penalties, the group were forced to apologise in front of the whole squad. Everyone did so, except Clifford Mulenga. Because of that refusal, he was thrown out of the squad for the rest of the tournament. At that point, he can hardly have imagined that his team-mates would defy all predictions to be crowned African champions. Continuing his confessions, he went on to describe his encounter with Hervé Renard after that night out. "The next day, I came down to breakfast as usual. Two of the guys I went out with weren't there. They were probably too drunk or had girls in their rooms. I was with Hichani Himonde. The coach came over to us and things got heated. He slapped Hichani. I nearly took a punch, but in the end it was my phone that got thrown against the wall", he explained, before joking: "By the way, I'm going to remind him that he owes me a phone. "

Alcohol addiction and a poor reputation despite his talent

Since then, Mulenga has knocked around a fair number of leagues, notably in South Africa, without ever fully showing what he could do. That was down to a temperament regarded as difficult, with lapses in conduct, but also an addiction to alcohol that he would eventually admit to years later. He had, for a time, caught the eye of Real Madrid, but the Merengue went no further, probably put off by what they heard about him. Other European clubs also looked at him, but each time negotiations came to nothing.

Now 36, Clifford Mulenga is a young retiree. The midfielder decided to hang up his boots in August 2023 and turn the page, though not without some disappointment over the African champion's title he was denied. He felt it was an injustice. " I think it's because of my past with the national team that I was thrown out and not the others. I was the scapegoat", he said, still bitter about the episode.