Bring Ivory Coast, Mawejje calls out
What you need to know:
Midfielder says he wants Cranes to be drawn against Africa Cup defending champions Ivory Coast.
Kampala.
Tonny Mawejje has grown fond of picking his opponents and relishing the challenge. This newspaper has previously picked his mind on duels with some of Africa’s biggest stars.
In October 2010, the Iceland-based midfielder called out then Uefa Champions League winner MacDonald Mariga, at Inter Milan at the time, before Uganda Cranes’ clash with neighbours Kenya.
“I respect him but I am not afraid of him at all,” Mawejje said then. “I played against him in the U-19s in 2004 and he wasn’t a threat. To me, well, he is a great player playing for big club. But I’m a better player.”
Both duels during the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers ended goalless. Just last week, Mawejje called out Mariga’s brother, Victor Wanyama, prior to a friendly against Kenya.
That ended goalless too as the Tottenham Hotspur player captained his side during a game in which Mawejje featured in the second half having arrived six hours prior. With qualification for the 2017 edition sealed, a first for Uganda since 1978, Mawejje hopes that his Cranes are drawn in the same group with defending champions Ivory Coast.
That will bring him face to face with Man City’s Yaya Toure, a four-time Africa Footballer of the Year and arguably the best on the continent over the past five years.
“I have played against some of the biggest stars already in (Togo’s Emmanuel) Adebayor, (Ghana’s Andre) Ayew, (Michael) Essien and the Kenyans but not yet Yaya,” Mawejje said. “I hope we face Yaya this time.”
Mawejje will get his wish when the draw for the group stage is conducted on October 19 in the Gabon capital, Libreville. The criteria to be followed in conducting the draw is yet to be released by continental body Caf but the hosts Gabon are guaranteed to be in Group A.
“People will be surprised by our performances,” midfielder Mawejje told Daily Monitor. “Everyone will ask; where has Uganda been all this time?” When Uganda last played in Nations Cup, Phillip Omondi led the Cranes to the final, losing 2-0 to hosts Ghana in 1978.
Like Mawejje, Geoffrey Sserunkuma, recalled for the first time in four years for Sunday’s historic 1-0 victory over Comoros is not fretting either. “This is a young group of players who have been exposed. They know and watch all the players they will face in Gabon on TV so there won’t be a shock,” Sserunkuma noted.
