Orlando Pirates striker Gabadinho Mhango has broken a record of his national team at the African Cup of Nations.
The 29-year-old lit up Malawi’s tournament with his brace in the 2-1 win over Zimbabwe, which was only the Flames second victory in AFCON history.
Mhango himself also made history, becoming the first Malawian player to score a brace at the AFCON for his country.
“When I walked in my room, the manager came to me and told me ‘you know that you are the first player to score two goals [in one match] in the African Cup of Nations,” he told CAF.
“I said ‘no’. He said ‘you should know now. If you score another you’ll be the [country’s] top goalscorer [at AFCON].”
The Bucs forward also spoke about the pride of collecting his country’s second win at AFCON after Malawi beat Algeria 3-0 at the 2010 but didn’t make it out of the group stage.
“We want to be that generation of Malawi, when we won that game it was our second win at the African Cup of Nations in the history of Malawi,” he told CAF.
“For our generation we want to beat that history and say ‘we have to win a second one’.
“That time [of Malawi’s first win] I wasn’t even playing football yet but we watched it on tv. I was still young.
“They only won one game but I could see the feeling of the country, everyone was excited for us to beat Algeria.
“It was history for Malawi to beat Nigeria because Nigeria is a big country, they’ve got quite some big players that play overseas.
“It’s in the history of Malawian football now, it’s a great feeling.”
Malawi did secure qualification for the knockout stages of AFCON for a first time ever and will face Morocco in the next round of 16.
