Local boys are the true Cranes heroes
Jun 25, 2008
APART from the fact that the Uganda Cranes are on the way to ending a thirty-two year hiatus from the Nations Cup club, one other point of satisfaction from this qualifying campaign must be how brilliantly the home-based players in the national team have gone about their business.
CHARLES MUTEBI
APART from the fact that the Uganda Cranes are on the way to ending a thirty-two year hiatus from the Nations Cup club, one other point of satisfaction from this qualifying campaign must be how brilliantly the home-based players in the national team have gone about their business.
Johnson Bagoole, Simeon Masaba, Dan Wagaluka, Caesar Okhuti and Geoffrey Sserunkuma have all represented Uganda, for the most part with great distinction.
The image of URA winger Wagulaka powering Uganda’s third goal past Angola’s hapless custodian will be long in fading from many people’s memories or for that matter club mate Bagoole’s response after being called as cover for Noah ‘Babadi’ Kasule.
Bagoole protected Cranes defence so well against Angola that the previously irreplaceable Kasule’s place in the team may not be taken for granted henceforth.
Such is the parity between a few of the locally-based players on the national team and their foreign compatriots; all of which means more homebred players can be called upon in the course of the campaign.
After all, who can tell whether the foreign-based contingent, which currently forms the bulk of the Cranes’ squad, will still be in form when we get to Angola 2010 or, if you dare to dream, South Africa.
Soccer governing body FUFA continuously expressed discontent with coach Laszlo Csaba’s mistrust of locally-based players early in the campaign.
Needless to add, that FUFA would have been impressed by the players’ inclusion in the Hungarian’s plans if not their subsequent excellence. No wonder Csaba’s relationship with FUFA has improved many fold since the start of the qualifiers. And even more crucially his relationship with the local football lights.
* Visiting West Ham United defender Anton Ferdinand has been assured by President Yoweri Museveni that the Proline Academy will start building a permanent facility on Entebbe road soon, reports Phillip Corry.
The assurance came after Ferdinand and Proline officials visited the President at State House on Tuesday night.
“The President assured us that work on the site will soon commence after all the paper work and clearance have been done,†Mujib Kasule, director of the academy said.
Museveni promised Proline land after Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand visited last year.
Proline plans to become the first fully fledged academy with its own facility to cater for over 200 boys in the country.
The West Ham defender will return to England on Monday
APART from the fact that the Uganda Cranes are on the way to ending a thirty-two year hiatus from the Nations Cup club, one other point of satisfaction from this qualifying campaign must be how brilliantly the home-based players in the national team have gone about their business.
Johnson Bagoole, Simeon Masaba, Dan Wagaluka, Caesar Okhuti and Geoffrey Sserunkuma have all represented Uganda, for the most part with great distinction.
The image of URA winger Wagulaka powering Uganda’s third goal past Angola’s hapless custodian will be long in fading from many people’s memories or for that matter club mate Bagoole’s response after being called as cover for Noah ‘Babadi’ Kasule.
Bagoole protected Cranes defence so well against Angola that the previously irreplaceable Kasule’s place in the team may not be taken for granted henceforth.
Such is the parity between a few of the locally-based players on the national team and their foreign compatriots; all of which means more homebred players can be called upon in the course of the campaign.
After all, who can tell whether the foreign-based contingent, which currently forms the bulk of the Cranes’ squad, will still be in form when we get to Angola 2010 or, if you dare to dream, South Africa.
Soccer governing body FUFA continuously expressed discontent with coach Laszlo Csaba’s mistrust of locally-based players early in the campaign.
Needless to add, that FUFA would have been impressed by the players’ inclusion in the Hungarian’s plans if not their subsequent excellence. No wonder Csaba’s relationship with FUFA has improved many fold since the start of the qualifiers. And even more crucially his relationship with the local football lights.
* Visiting West Ham United defender Anton Ferdinand has been assured by President Yoweri Museveni that the Proline Academy will start building a permanent facility on Entebbe road soon, reports Phillip Corry.
The assurance came after Ferdinand and Proline officials visited the President at State House on Tuesday night.
“The President assured us that work on the site will soon commence after all the paper work and clearance have been done,†Mujib Kasule, director of the academy said.
Museveni promised Proline land after Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand visited last year.
Proline plans to become the first fully fledged academy with its own facility to cater for over 200 boys in the country.
The West Ham defender will return to England on Monday