Ssekatawa deserves help but ex-players must be pro-active

As with so many other issues in the Ugandan game today, KCCA FC took the lead and supported their former star striker Issa Ssekatawa who had assumed a reclusive life since suffering a leg break playing amongst ex-internationals in February.

Until KCCA FC publicly highlighted his plight with a visit by the team and staff in addition to Shs500,000 cash support, Ssekatawa was headed for the dreaded highway of oblivion where he would have joined contemporaries like Matthew Lucha who are leading desolate, hopeless lives.

In the last week, the total collection of money generated for Sekatawa’s rehabilitation has shot slightly above the Shs6m required to fix his lower limb thanks to contributions from Fufa, KCCA supporters and well-wishers.

Together with a group of football mad friends with whom we share a frothy one every now and then, we have collected a few coins - to be handed over tomorrow - to contribute to the cause solely because we believe Ssekatawa’s contribution to society after all should have insulated him from the very dire state he finds himself in.

Ssekatawa is no saint, but neither are we all. In his defence, he played in an era where football was simply a game of 22 players chasing an onion bag. Football was not the commercial monster it is today whose rewards on the pitch and off it define livelihoods.

The era in which the former KCCA, Express and Nytil forward played had arguably better players than today. Yet that was a period of the game where football was a sport. It is now a product.

The career of a player in the Sekatawa era lasted for as long as he played. There are few stories of his contemporaries who enhanced their brand value within the game after hanging their boots.
Then, unlike today, there weren’t media opportunities for former, players, coaching courses were few and far between, the game had no brand ambassadors and generally footballers despite being liked weren’t idolised.

Ssekatawa is now an ex-player and his legacy is best understood by those who watched and appreciated his eye for goal. Those who never watched him cannot appreciate his talent and legend, and will naturally not hold him in the high regard his contribution deserves.

Why? Because the truth of the matter is that back then we didn’t archive or preserve the moments that could and should have upheld the legend of stars of the time. Where is the footage of Philip Omondi for instance, perhaps Uganda’s greatest footballer of all time?

Help has thankfully come Ssekatawa’s way but for every such instance, there are hundreds of former players living pitiable lives today.

The timely support for Ssekatawa is treating a symptom but not preventing the disease. Former footballers shouldn’t wait for the next leg break to start moving around a basket of pleas for assistance to player X or Y. For quite a while now, an idea has been mooted of footballers remitting some of their earnings today to a fund that can go some way in safe guarding their future.

The default position is to blame the federation for their despair but Fufa’s primary objectives are wide and broad and while the welfare of ex-players is not to be disregarded it ranks among the least of their priorities. The federation has done a good job of empowering the Uganda Football Players Association, whose nominal role is to champion the agenda of those who have quit the beautiful game.

Ex-players are a reality of life. All players of today will one day join the group of the retired and it is pertinent that their post-soccer careers are summarily looked into.

Forcefully breaking into Fufa house is not an appropriate way of endearing yourself to football stakeholders. Likewise engaging in petty football politics will not address their list of supposed grievances.

And isn’t it about time the term ‘ex-player’ was defined with a bit of clarity? There are individuals who played in the 50s and 60s and 70s, who ought to be considered among ex-players.

And if the term is the way I understand it, ex-players cannot be limited to only those who played for the Uganda Cranes.

Either way they have a contribution to make to the game after retirement. But that will only see the light of day if they agree to help themselves through working and speaking as one.
There is strength in numbers.

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@mnamanya