Uganda's sports hubs: Mulago

SPORTS HUBS

Jimmy Kirunda, Tom Lwanga, Majid Musisi, Sam Mugambe, Godfrey Kateregga and Adam Ssemugabi.

What is common about these Ugandan football stars?

True, they were brainy gladiators who sparkled in the beautiful game, but nothing connects them better than their roots do. They all cut their teeth from Mulago, one of Kampala's biggest youth collection centres right from the 1960s to 1980s.

Every day, youths thronged a bumpy and not-so green football pitch in what is today called the Old Mulago medical complex.

If these youngsters weren't children of staff in Uganda's biggest sports facility, they were from neighbouring Kamwokya, Kyebando, Makerere and Katanga.
Located on one of the hospital's boundaries, the field was adjacent to the TB ward, Doctors' quarters, the Dental clinic and Uganda's first mental ward before it was transferred to Bbiina.

"Children would crowd the field for their round of football games before the seniors took charge later in the afternoon," recounts Lwanga, whose father was a medical assistant and his mother a nurse.

Soccer giants Brazil had an early impact on this huge army of youth. Superstars like Pele, Garrincha, Tostao, Vava, Falcao, Zico and Socrates were idolised here.

Is it, therefore, surprising that the Mulago pitch was named "Maracana" after the cathedral of Brazilian football?

Then the area youth team whose silky football everyone admired was named after Brazilian giants Santos.

"Every young man in Mulago dreamt of  making the Santos team, and indeed all those who qualified were very successful wherever they went thereafter," stated Uganda's most successful footballer, Majid Musisi, in a 2005 interview.

Talent scouts like KCC FC's  Bidandi Ssali were quick to spot the Mulago talent conveyor belt. That's how Kirunda and Lwanga ended up at Lugogo. Mulago's products cannot point at a particular coach or teacher who helped fine-tune their talent.

It was largely about learning from our seniors. "In my case it was picking from people like Kirunda and his elder brother Bedford Kityo," says Lwanga.

Kirunda's national team call-up in the late 1960s was one of the biggest things to happen to Mulago. "It served as a huge inspiration to youths in the area. Everyone wanted to be like Jimmy," reveals sports historian Martin Mugabi.

Muagabi, who lived in Mulago before transferring to another sports hub, Naguru, says Kirunda's graduation was a morale booster of unprecedented proportions.

Is it, therefore, surprising that Kirunda later became Uganda's longest serving captain?

Lwanga had an equally long career as a player, coach and instructor. Today, he is on the KCCA FC's board. Kateregga and Mugambe joined Tobacco FC, before joining KCC while Ssemugabi and Musisi used Pepsi as a stopover to KCC and Villa.

Musisi, arguably one of Uganda's best goalscorers, was the country's first footballer to play professional football in Europe.

Looking back, Lwanga insists that all these milestones wouldn't have been reached without the Mulago grooming.