Airtel Rising Stars come to a climax in Fort Portal

Season-7 of the Airtel Rising Stars climaxes on Sunday with the national championships in Fort Portal.

Outstanding players selected from all the regional qualifiers in Kampala, Buganda, East North East, North, West Nile and Kitara regions played in the final rounds of the tournament that started on Friday.

The likes of Kitara's Cissy Kabarwani and Benjamin Iranya and West Nile's Kevin Adrupio and Khalid Hakim as well as Eastern's Winnie Kamugisha and Phillip Egesa are expected to spice up the tournament with their skills just like Issa Bugembe, Troys Mutyaba, Shamim Najjuma and Charity Anyenyo from the Buganda region.

The Airtel Rising Stars is the biggest Under-17 grassroots tournament on the African continent, aimed at identifying talent and nurturing upcoming footballers.

Over the years, the Airtel Rising Stars initiative has yielded many success stories and has enabled several upcoming soccer talents to join Africa Premier League clubs and their countries' under-age national teams.

Each of the regional champions in the boys and girls categories got sh1m, a golden trophy, medals and certificates with the runners up in each of the regions bagging sh500, 000/, a sliver trophy, medals and certificates.

The national champions in today's final will each walk away with sh5m while the runners will get sh500,000/-.

ARS regional winners

Kampala:

Boys: Kampala Junior Team (KJT)

Girls: Uganda Martyrs' High School, Lubaga

Buganda:

Boys: Rays of Grace Academy (Buikwe)

Girls: Divine Stars, Nyendo (Masaka)

East:

Boys: Mbale Tigers (Mbale)

Girls: Kataka She-FC (Mbale)

North East:

Boys: Star Light S.S (Soroti)

Girls: Echoes S.S (Soroti)

North:

Boys: Kitgum Rwot Ker (Kitgum)

Girls: National Youth Football Academy (Lira)

West Nile:

Boys: Yumbe Heroes (Yumbe)

Girls: FHL Simba (Moyo)

Kitara:

Boys: Kiryandongo (Kiryadongo)

Girls: Toro Queens (Fort Portal)

West:

Boys: Kigezi Football Academy (Kabale)

Girls: Sheema Girls (Sheema)