‘SCARS OF PAST MADE MY FUTURE’
Hungry Zanzala’s living the dream...
ACCRINGTON Stanley call themselves ‘the club that wouldn’t die’ – a strapline that means more to Offrande Zanzala than most.
The Stanley striker has gone from fleeing war-torn Congo to leading the line in the mill towns of Lancashire, so isn’t exaggerating when he calls his footballing journey ‘a miracle’.
Zanzala was a three-yearold toddler when his family fled the second Congolese Civil War, a brutal conflict that claimed nearly 25,000 lives.
He hid from gunfire and was separated from his father, who left to find employment and refuge for them in Austria.
When Zanzala says he’s living the dream, it’s because he’s experienced the nightmare.
“I’m not ashamed of my past,” said the 22-year-old. “I have scars from a difficult upbringing and I experienced more than any child should.
Blessed
“Sometimes when I look back I think, wow, how much have I been blessed in my life.
“Coming to Accrington onloan last season and winning League Two shows I’m living the dream.
“It’s like a miracle really. Those scars have formed me to be a person I am with drive, with belief to never give up.”
When he was rejected by Nottingham Forest at the age of 11, his footballing dream seemed as far away as on those traumatic days in Central Africa.
But Derby County was the team and Andrew Danylyszyn the man who changed everything.
Having watched him play on Forest Recreation Park north of Nottingham, the then-Mansfield Town youth coach set him on a path that caught the attention of the Rams.
Zanzala is still in touch with Danylyszyn and, alongside inspirational Stanley chieftain John Coleman, provides the striker with a groundswell of guidance.
“Andrew is a good person at heart and he’s helped me massively on the pitch and off it as well,” he said.
“John is another who is pushing me to improve. He’s different to a lot of managers. A lot of people say we’re overachieving and that it’s not a big town, we don’t have that big a crowd.
“As a group, we shut that out. That’s just our personalities coming through and John tries to harness that.”
Zanzala, who left Derby to pen a permanent deal over the summer, is a confidence player and spoke of deep relief after scoring his first goal of the season against Doncaster in October.
Adapted
His side have, on the whole, adapted admirably to the rigours of the third tier and not even a run of six games without a win early in the campaign has shaken their comfortable mid-table standing.
Consolidation couldn’t be further from the forward’s mind, though, with an ambitious goal target in mind and back-to-back promotion in his sights.
“I’ve got myself a personal target – (team-mate) Billy Kee reckons I can get 20 and I will hopefully prove him right,” said Zanzala, who sat on six goals before yesterday’s visit of Sunderland.
“As a club, there’s no reason we can’t get promoted.
“It gives us confidence knowing we belong in this division and while there are some big clubs knocking around in League One, we’re looking up rather than down.”
Just as Zanzala had to fight for his life in his early years, Stanley have stared into the abyss in their own way having reformed from financial ruins in 1966 and fought fiscal fires ever since.
But for their newest front man, a mentality of making something from nothing is second nature.
“We’re all hungry at Accrington,” he said. “No-one here has been spoon-fed. We have had to work extra hard for what we’ve got.
“That helps because you set the bar higher. You only need to look around the dressing-room to be reminded why you’re playing football.”