Afcon 2019 Uganda Cranes squad: Where is Kizito Luwagga?

The Uganda Cranes provincial squad for Afcon 2019 has been named and Kizito Luwagga is neither on it, nor primed to take up any of the 6 extra slots reserved for our top professionals. And that is such shame because I am made to believe he still plays professional football somewhere in Europe.

This should surprise no-one though, seeing he has never come out to abandon his self-declared faux retirement from national duty made in the heat of our elimination from Afcon 2017.
Given his largely ineffective performance in Gabon, it could have been a noble cause this retirement, but it turns out it was just an outburst arising out of his ‘humiliating’ substitution by then manager Micho in a game we were losing largely due to his ineffectiveness.

I remember thinking his absurd behaviour was for the cameras. That this was him living up to the flawed-genius image. Yes, he has been one of the few creative footballers on our team for years. But I do have a problem when talent is drained of all its application. And if application means sacrificing your ‘genius’ for the tactics of the day, so be it. No amount of catchy words can cover up for ordinary tantrums and rationalise rotten attitudes and I don’t care how wronged some individual feels; anarchy has no place in team sports.
And see what an ordinary tantrum has gotten him? Back in 2017 he was quoted saying he wouldn’t comeback until Micho was replaced as a manager.

Well, Micho left 18 months ago and Kizito Luwagga has never gotten a call up since. And it is just as well that the selection committee called his bluff, because quite frankly, neither has he reconciled the management of his ego and his obvious abilities, nor has his football called for our attention over the last 12 months. And what rotten timing this has been for him. Here was a man about to demonstrate how good he could really be – a man getting into his prime as a footballer. Then this.

And now that he has started that downward spiral from which few return, my message to his kind is pure and simple. If you aren’t responsible for selecting national coaches, you had better bottle it, buckle down and work for the flag. Everything else in the life of a footballer follows that. Besides, you can’t really win in a matter in which you disrespect the flag because that’s what disrespecting the Cranes means. Your career needs The Uganda Cranes more than you can imagine. And it doesn’t matter how talented you are, a good club career that isn’t replicated at national level is a contradiction.

Having said that, I still do hope he comes out though, and shames those of us who right now think he is wasted. If he doesn’t then he is surely headed down the road on which many, more talented than he will ever be, have travelled, and one at whose end lies the litter of unaccomplished dreams. And all for what? Step overs?