Sekagya ensures Uganda has a brand in Austria
Jun 22, 2008
WHEN former Red Bulls Salzburg boss Giovanni Trapattoni recommended the signing of Ugandan star Ibrahim Sekagya last year, it was a well-calculated gamble in the football sense.
By Fred Kaweesi
in Vienna, Austria
WHEN former Red Bulls Salzburg boss Giovanni Trapattoni recommended the signing of Ugandan star Ibrahim Sekagya last year, it was a well-calculated gamble in the football sense.
Trapattoni had been aware of the Sekagya effect, to which Argentinian club Arsenal attributed its domestic success the previous season.
But what the Italian certainly didn’t anticipate was the impact the Uganda Cranes’ flamboyant captain would have off the pitch.
Sekagya remains Cranes’ most inspirational figure due to his imposing presence, never-say-die spirit and excellent leadership.
But does also exists as most Uganda’s prominent product to be exported in recent years in the European state, east of Germany.
At Vienna airport, the first response I endured among the Immigration staff was,
“You have a good player Ibrahim (Sekagya)â€, and this from an Austria fan who has lived and breathed all his life as a staunch Rapid Vienna supporter.
The explosion of cheers from the rest of the staff told it all. To many in the Austrian town of Klagenfurt, Sekagya shares the limelight in the circles of being a star that not only earns several euros in Austria’s top-flight, but also from his extreme talent and dedication to sustaining it.
Market research surveys in the country suggest that though they have the best in football in the shape of home-grown talents such Christoph Leitegb Andreas Ivanschitz and Roland Linz, Sekagya, Alexandre Zickler, Niko Kovac are by far the most popular foreign stars in the country.
Is it because he is black?
“We have seven maybe in the league but not very good. We beat Salzburg 7-0 last season and I was surprised, everybody because Salzburg have a good team,’ Steffen Hofmann, a restaurant chef stated.
The fact is that Sekagya is a marketing man’s dream. He is not just a footballer but a lifestyle product.
In Spain, the former Real Madrid club president Florentino Perez, a construction magnate, a couple of years ago built his entire re-election platform on getting England star-man David Beckham to Spain as part of his Galactico project.
And with the best in the club’ ranks, Perez did not only hope to contest for all the trophies, but also the markets in Asia.
Uganda, in its own unique way, could emulate Perez and invest more in football rather than spend billions in trying to “advertise†the country on CNN.
At a time when most of the news headlines coming out of Uganda are negative, it is heart-warming to find one of our own creating positive headlines across the world — and the government does not have to pay a cent for it
And for this, one is grateful.
in Vienna, Austria
WHEN former Red Bulls Salzburg boss Giovanni Trapattoni recommended the signing of Ugandan star Ibrahim Sekagya last year, it was a well-calculated gamble in the football sense.
Trapattoni had been aware of the Sekagya effect, to which Argentinian club Arsenal attributed its domestic success the previous season.
But what the Italian certainly didn’t anticipate was the impact the Uganda Cranes’ flamboyant captain would have off the pitch.
Sekagya remains Cranes’ most inspirational figure due to his imposing presence, never-say-die spirit and excellent leadership.
But does also exists as most Uganda’s prominent product to be exported in recent years in the European state, east of Germany.
At Vienna airport, the first response I endured among the Immigration staff was,
“You have a good player Ibrahim (Sekagya)â€, and this from an Austria fan who has lived and breathed all his life as a staunch Rapid Vienna supporter.
The explosion of cheers from the rest of the staff told it all. To many in the Austrian town of Klagenfurt, Sekagya shares the limelight in the circles of being a star that not only earns several euros in Austria’s top-flight, but also from his extreme talent and dedication to sustaining it.
Market research surveys in the country suggest that though they have the best in football in the shape of home-grown talents such Christoph Leitegb Andreas Ivanschitz and Roland Linz, Sekagya, Alexandre Zickler, Niko Kovac are by far the most popular foreign stars in the country.
Is it because he is black?
“We have seven maybe in the league but not very good. We beat Salzburg 7-0 last season and I was surprised, everybody because Salzburg have a good team,’ Steffen Hofmann, a restaurant chef stated.
The fact is that Sekagya is a marketing man’s dream. He is not just a footballer but a lifestyle product.
In Spain, the former Real Madrid club president Florentino Perez, a construction magnate, a couple of years ago built his entire re-election platform on getting England star-man David Beckham to Spain as part of his Galactico project.
And with the best in the club’ ranks, Perez did not only hope to contest for all the trophies, but also the markets in Asia.
Uganda, in its own unique way, could emulate Perez and invest more in football rather than spend billions in trying to “advertise†the country on CNN.
At a time when most of the news headlines coming out of Uganda are negative, it is heart-warming to find one of our own creating positive headlines across the world — and the government does not have to pay a cent for it
And for this, one is grateful.