{"id":82912,"date":"2026-06-21T18:24:27","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T18:24:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/first-zambian-to-play-at-a-world-cup"},"modified":"2026-06-21T18:24:27","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T18:24:27","slug":"first-zambian-to-play-at-a-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/first-zambian-to-play-at-a-world-cup","title":{"rendered":"FIRST ZAMBIAN TO PLAY AT A WORLD CUP"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>FIRST ZAMBIAN TO PLAY AT A WORLD CUP<\/p>\n<p>Guus Til has become the first Zambian-born player to make an appearance at a FIFA World Cup<\/p>\n<p>The Samfya-born midfielder came off the bench to participate in Nerthelands\u2019 impressive 5-1 win over Sweden.<\/p>\n<p>He was previously approached to represent Zambia in 2021 but opted to choose his father\u2019s country, Netherlands.<\/p>\n<p>Zambia have never qualified for a FIFA World Cup in their history but now have a son of soil taking part in the competition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>FIRST ZAMBIAN TO PLAY AT A WORLD CUP Guus Til has become the first Zambian-born player to make an appearance at a FIFA World Cup The Samfya-born midfielder came off the bench to participate in Nerthelands\u2019 impressive 5-1 win over Sweden. He was previously approached to represent Zambia in 2021 but opted to choose his [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":82911,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-sport"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>FIRST ZAMBIAN TO PLAY AT A WORLD CUP - Zambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/first-zambian-to-play-at-a-world-cup\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"FIRST ZAMBIAN TO PLAY AT A WORLD CUP\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"FIRST ZAMBIAN TO PLAY AT A WORLD CUP Guus Til has become the first Zambian-born player to make an appearance at a FIFA World Cup The Samfya-born midfielder came off the bench to participate in Nerthelands\u2019 impressive 5-1 win over Sweden. He was previously approached to represent Zambia in 2021 but opted to choose his [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/first-zambian-to-play-at-a-world-cup\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Zambia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-21T18:24:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/first-zambian-to-play-at-a-world-cup#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/first-zambian-to-play-at-a-world-cup\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"FIRST ZAMBIAN TO PLAY AT A WORLD CUP\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-21T18:24:27+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/first-zambian-to-play-at-a-world-cup\"},\"wordCount\":90,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/first-zambian-to-play-at-a-world-cup#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zambia\/sites\/35\/2026\/06\/sm_1782066267.167507.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"head lines\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/first-zambian-to-play-at-a-world-cup#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/first-zambian-to-play-at-a-world-cup\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/first-zambian-to-play-at-a-world-cup\",\"name\":\"FIRST ZAMBIAN TO PLAY AT A WORLD CUP - 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