Cecafa U-15 champs have 2026 World Cup dream

The ruthlessness with which Uganda Under-15 side dispatched teams in last week’s Cecafa Cup in Eritrea has got Fufa dreaming of bigger things – including earmarking them for the 2026 World Cup qualification.
Look, Jackson Magera’s teens lifted the trophy on Friday without conceding a goal in six matches whilst scoring 23 goals. The 4-0 demolition of Kenya in the final summed up Uganda’s potency better. “We are projecting this victorious team to participate in the next Afcon U-17 tourney and later fulfilling our ambition of qualifying for the 2026 World Cup tourney,” Fufa President Moses Magogo, told the team at a congratulatory dinner at Jevine Hotel-Rubaga on Monday night.
Magera concurs with Magogo that the seemingly ambitious dream can be achieved but at a cost.
“We are going to follow these boys in their schools and assign them to Fufa Juniors League teams for proper monitoring and progress.
“A player like Abasi Kyeyune (top scored with seven goals) has the ability of doing what Geoffrey Sserunkuma and Andrew Mukasa gave to Uganda football, if handle with care,” Magera opined.
He didn’t apply for the vacant national team youth coach but says he would like to continue working with the youth set up in getting fruition out of what he started last year with the U-17.
Kampala Citizens College youngster Kyeyune, who netted against Ethiopia, South Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi and Kenya, reveals he is targeting playing like Sserunkuma and that the sky is the limit for his colleagues.
Bashir Mutyaba, the Fufa deputy football development director, confirms that they are working with a pool of over 500 in the Under 17 and Under-15 categories who they believe will form a reliable national team in the near future, and that begins with the Under-20 Cecafa championship to be held in Uganda in two weeks’ time. Uganda are the reigning Cecafa U-17 champions and Magera will use the same team in the Cecafa U-20 to be held in Jinja, Kampala and Gulu.