Rachael Kaphaizi
The Airtel Top 8 Cup started off with a bang in 2017, registering a record 28 goals but the story dropped to 21 in the 2025 season. No season has surpassed the 28 goal mark.
Three other seasons (2021, 2022 and 2023) also recorded the same number of goals, 28, failing to break that 2017 season.
While 2018 and 2019 were bad seasons as only 12 goals were scored in each year and this year 21 goals have been scored—meaning for 8 years, we have failed to break the 28 goals mark.
Despite that, nobody has managed to break a 2021 record when top scorer won it with 8 goals. FCB Nyasa Big Bullets striker Babatunde Adepoju made that record.
Since then, the cup has had 11 players winning the golden boot accolade but none of them has managed to break Adepoju’s record.
A brief analysis of the golden boot winners:
Khumbo Ng’ambi of Mighty Wanderers and Dan Katunga of Moyale Barracks were joint top scorers in the inaugural season with three goals each. In that year, Bullets failed to score even a single goal and could not progress.
Wanderers’ midfielder Joseph Kamwendo won the 2018 golden boot with two goals while Khuda Myaba of Silver Strikers won the 2019 golden boot with the same number of goals.
Come Adepoju in 2021 with a crazy number of goals, 8, a record which no player has achieved since its inception.
Lanjesi Nkhoma of Bullets, Clement Nyondo of Dedza Dynamos and Wanderers’ Chiukepo Msowoya won it in 2022 with two goals each.
Nkhoma came again in the 2023 season winning the golden boot with 3 goals. He is the only player to win it twice.
Chinsinsi Maonga of Silver Strikers scored three goals to win the 2024 golden boot award. And in this season, Festus Duwe of Silver Strikers is the top scorer netting three goals.
Why are numbers dropping? Why is nobody breaking Adepoju’s 2021 record?
Football analyst Atanazius Jabulani Jr expressed concerns over the lack of consistent scorers in the tournament.
“The lack of quality strikers is contributing to the scarcity of goals in the Airtel Top 8, giving players low chances to reclaim the golden boot,” he said.
Former national team star and current Mighty Tigers strikers trainer, Russell Mwafulirwa believes the pressure of cup games plays a significant role in goal scarcity.
“Players give themselves unnecessary pressure in cup games; the fear of making mistakes causes more mistakes,” said Mwafulirwa.
He further noted that while league matches allow room for recovery, cup games offer no such luxury.
“You can miss today in the league and correct it in the next match. In a cup game, one mistake can knock you out,” he added.
Mwafulirwa’s coaching philosophy focuses on positioning and movement: “I always remind my players to find the right spaces; it makes execution easier and increases goal chances.”
This year’s top scorer Duwe said he is happy to have won his first golden boot with Silver—months after joining the club from Civil Service United.
“It’s an incredible honor and testament to the hard work and dedication of our entire team, I am just so proud of myself, it’s a motivation for me to keep scoring and helping my team in the following games,” he said.
Asked why Adepoju is failing to break a record he set in 2021, he said at times players put team interest at first than their plan hence failing to break the record but he is hopeful that with God he will make it at the right time.
