Bigger than Rumble in the Jungle? DR Congo bid for World Cup historyImage source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Zaire lost all three games at the 1974 World Cup but later in the year Kinshasa hosted one of the greatest boxing matches of all time between George Foreman and Muhammad AliPublished3 hours agoThree games, three defeats, 14 goals conceded, no goals scored – DR Congo’s Fifa World Cup debut in 1974 was certainly one to forget.The first side from sub-Saharan Africa to qualify for the finals, the country then known as Zaire lost 2-0 to Scotland and 9-0 against Yugoslavia before another infamous moment in their final group game against Brazil.Trailing 2-0 late in the second half, Leopards defender Mwepu Ilunga bolted out of the defensive wall as the defending champions prepared to take a free-kick and thumped the ball high and long downfield.The right-back was booked and ridicule followed – including suggestions that Zaire’s players did not even know the laws of the game. Almost 40 years later Ilunga revealed it was an act of protest.”I was aware of football regulations. I did it on purpose,” he told the BBC in 2010, five years before his death.
Later in 1974, the world’s eyes were back on the central African country when its capital Kinshasa became the stage for one of sport’s greatest ever events.
At huge expense, Zaire’s president Mobutu Sese Seko secured hosting rights for the heavyweight world title clash between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, the fight that became known as the Rumble in the Jungle.
“Geopolitically, President Mobutu really pulled off a media coup because his country was discovered and became known across the world,” recalls journalist Justin Kabala Mwana, who covered the bout.
Now, 52 years on from both one of the country’s darkest sporting chapters and one of its most celebrated occasions, DR Congo face England in the last 32 at this year’s World Cup on Wednesday (17:00 BST).
And like the Rumble in the Jungle, Kabala sees the game in Atlanta as a chance for a country hit hard by conflict and corruption over decades to “regain its unity and dignity”.
