Najjemba leads cast in Fufa Women Player of the Year award

When Fauzia Najjemba won the most  valuable player (MVP) award at the 2019 Cecafa U-17 Women Championship in Njeru, it was intriguing to know how she felt.

Her moment was almost immediately rubbed off the memories of the day as Fufa chose the aftermath of the tournament’s award ceremony to show off the car her teammate Juliet Nalukenge had beaten her and Hasifah Nassuna to at the Airtel Fufa Awards as Women Player of the Year just the night before.

“I honestly did not mind not winning that year,” Najjemba shares now.

“People were just getting to know me and Juliet hugely deserved everything she won that year. I was just happy to be nominated.”

The two forwards led the line for the U-17s and now do the same for the U-20 national team. But the more they play together, the more the comparisons, among fans, between them.

“We hear it all but it cannot be our focus. We are first of all good friends, different players and I personally prefer looking at myself in the eyes of my role model Alex Morgan (USA woman footballer).

“Besides, Juliet is not even here. She is playing abroad as she deserves to and I am still here.”

There is a chance now for Najjemba to create her own piece of history as the 2021 Woman Footballer of the Year. 

For those that love a superstition, no former nominee has won it in an odd year but Najjemba will be pleased to know that this is the sixth edition of the awards and the other two even editions (second and fourth) were won by former nominees Nassuna and Ruth Aturo.

Najjemba is again up against teammates; the closest is fellow U-20 winger Margaret Kunihira and Crested Cranes teammates Fazila Ikwaput and Daisy Nakaziro, as well as She Maroons upstart Joan Naggayi. 

“All those players have had a brilliant year. I just hope I will be voted this time,” she adds.
Her year started with a disappointing Fufa Women Super League (FWSL) run with her club Kampala Queens (KQ) at the Fufa Technical Centre in Njeru in May.

“We had a bad tournament coming from the Covid-19 lockdown but that was because the squad was not together. Some of our players stayed in school and we struggled,” she explains.

Coach Ayub Khalifa then named her U-20 national team captain as Nalukenge, who captained the group at U-17 level, left for Cyprus before coming back much later to be involved in the U-20 World Cup qualifiers against Kenya. 

Uganda whitewashed Kenya 10-3 on aggregate to set up a mouthwatering clash with South Africa next month.

Najjemba stamped down her role on the left wing as Uganda eliminated Ethiopia in the penultimate Africa Women Cup of Nations (AWCON) qualifiers last month. She then returned to captain the U-20s, with 11 goals in five games, at the Cecafa tourney that they lost to Ethiopia in Njeru almost a fortnight ago.

“Honestly, the loss broke us for some days because we are not used to losing. But this is a good group of players, no trouble causers. We are a happy team and we’ll bounce back,” she adds.

At U-17 level, Najjemba scored 22 goals. She has already managed 12 for the U-20s this year. She also scored, at home at St Mary’s College Kitende, for the senior team against Ethiopia.

First cut not the deepest
With all her early career success, it is surprising that Najjemba’s career might never have kicked off had she stuck to her guns to play a different sport.

She had started out playing cricket at St Joseph Naggalama and relishing those trips to compete against other schools at Lugogo Cricket Oval.

“I played cricket from my Primary Four. But in the second term of Primary Six, I decided to give football a try to help my house in the inter-house competitions. It went well and the teachers urged me to keep playing but I did not want because football involved more running (the irony of this is not lost on anyone as Najjemba, a versatile forward who prefers to play on the left wing, is a hard running player famed for her ability to kill off defences with her speed). My brothers also encouraged me, especially because I liked to escort them to their training,” Najjemba recalls.

Her parents Zubair Kivumbi and Hawa Namulondo made her love for cricket even more intense as they always bought her canvass rather than football boots.

During her Primary Seven, she represented her school at the national football championships in Jinja and enjoyed the experience. From here, there was no looking back.

Her brother continued to take her to his training in the neighbourhood and “the first day I juggled the ball, everyone went crazy. They told him, your sister can play.”

She then joined Nakifuuma High in 2015, where her teammates and fellow students would reward her with money whenever she played.She represented her school at the Mukono District Championships as a senior one student but they lost 8-0 to Mukono High.

“I had been everywhere on the pitch so Mukono High noticed and took me in that year in second term. Nakifuuma was also happy because the last time they had played Mukono High, they lost 12-0 so they saw this as an improvement.”
At Mukono, “the girls there were skilled and knew what to do.

They could shoot and control the ball with their chests,” but for the first three years, she regularly asked for permission to go and play cricket at Mukono Town View School. 

The privilege was denied towards the end of her senior three.
Breaking out

Najjemba was now part of a formidable team that had goalkeeper Vanessa Karungi (now in Denmark), Moureen Afoyo (Tooro Queens), Cissy Nantongo (She Corporate), and her U-20 teammate and now Kawempe midfielder Shamirah Nalugya. This squad beat Kawempe Muslim to win the secondary school games in Kabale in 2017 on penalties.

Najjemba and Nalugya also started to represent Isra Academy, owing to a partnership with Mukono, in the then topflight Fufa Women Elite League (FWEL).

“We had a good combination and tortured teams although we were not winning enough. But it was because of what we were doing in the team that we were summoned to the national team (in 2019 by coach Faridah Bulega).”

Bulega would in 2019 sign Najjemba at KQ while Nalugya went to Kawempe.

“When the Fufa Women Super League came [introduced as topflight league], we thought we needed to compete in and against the top teams to retain our places in the national team so we had to move. Shamirah chose Kawempe and I chose KQ. We miss each other but we meet in the national team.”

Fauzia Najjemba

Age: 18 (born August 7, 2003)
Position: Forward
Club: Kawempe Muslim
Parents: Zubair Kivumbi and Hawa Namulondo
Education:
Primary Leaving Examinations (2014): St. Joseph P/S Naggalama
Ordinary (2018) and Advanced Level (2020): Mukono High

Kunihira pushing for more gains

Margaret Kunihira is strikingly shy and innocent off pitch.
This character is a far cry from the diligent hard pressing winger that almost single handedly troubles defences that try to build from the back, and is one of the leading instigators of the team’s celebrations during matches.

She studies Kiswahili, Economics and Art in Senior Five at Kawempe Muslim so when I ask what she wants to be in future, Kunihira hesitates as if caught offguard and then says, “engineer.”

I remind her that she would probably need to study Mathematics before she considers that. But she smiles back and says; “they can let me try, no?”

She presses on and before she confesses that she also wants to become a professional footballer.

In that instant I can tell she is enjoying the interview as much as she enjoys her football.

Kunihira almost burst onto the scene from nowhere. She started playing football in 2015 at Kazingo Primary School in Fort Portal.

The gift in her was quite clear so coach Rogers Ayesiga worked hard to take her to Kings of Kings College in Fort Portal from where coach Ayub Khalifa convinced her to join Kawempe Muslim in 2018.

Before she could hammer down her position in the Kawempe team, there was a national team assignment for Khalifa at the Cosafa U-17 Women Championship. He summoned Kunihira, who delivered with nine goals, finishing as the team’s third highest scorer behind Juliet Nalukenge and Fauzia Najjemba as Uganda won the trophy.

“Coach tells me to be disciplined, play what I know, put all my best in training because it reflects in games and to rest my body well before matches. There is no big secret,” Kunihira shares.

She showed more maturity in early 2020 by scoring away in Ethiopia and at home against Tanzania as Uganda eliminated its rivals from the U-17 World Cup qualifiers.

When women football returned in May after a lull caused by the pandemic, the focus had turned to “winning the league with Kawempe.”

“Kawempe won the other titles before I came here so I was really expectant,” Kunihira says of the campaign that ended with Lady Doves being crowned champions. “I felt bad because I had never witnessed Kawempe lose but maybe that was God’s wish. I cannot wait for the new season to bring back what we had.”

Immediately after that disappointment, Khalifa who was tasked with working with the U-20 team and he turned to the players he knew best.

Kunihira is one of the youngest that Khalifa stuck to and she delivered again as they ousted Kenya in the U-20 second round World Cup qualifiers.

She has now scored 16 national youth teams goals and forced herself into reckoning for the player of the year award for the first time. At this rate, there will be many more to come.

Margaret Kunihira

Age: 17 (born September 9, 2004)
Club: Kawempe Muslim
Position: Winger
Parents: Eddie and Margaret Kyahura
Education: Kazingo Primary School (PLE in 2016)
Ordinary Level: S1-S2 (2017-2018): King of Kings College - Fort Portal
S3-S4: Kawempe Muslim SS
Currently in S5 at Kawempe

Late bloomer Naggayi happy
JJoan Naggayi’s nomination is a vote of confidence in the second tier division; the Fufa Women Elite League (FWEL) as she is the first nominee in six editions from the lower divisions.

In May and early June, Fufa for the first time watched over the completion of matches in the two divisions. The 2019/20 season, which was supposed to be the first time the two-tier league pyramid was played, did not end due to the ravaging Covid-19 pandemic.

There were fears that the relevance of the FWEL would fade with the creation of the Fufa Women Super League (FWSL) but players like Naggayi put up a show that could not go unnoticed.

The She Maroons midfielder set the tone for her side with her burst of energy and willingness to drive the team forward as they won not only promotion to the first division but also the title of the shortened version of the FWEL.

At the time, Naggayi was only on loan from Asubo-Gafford, the club her first school coach attached her to in 2019.

But her exploits that earned her the most valuable player accolade in Njeru in June forced She Maroons to push for a permanent transfer that was completed in September.

“I just had the heart to play because this was only my second tournament. The first one did not end so I wanted to give my best and be one of the best players in the tournament,” the 17-year-old says.

The feat also came with a call to the national team setup in preparation for the Cosafa Women Championship. Naggayi did not make the trip but feels she is not far away.

“I have not been here for long so for me the call-ups, awards and this nomination are just a sign of the chances that are still to come,” says the midfielder who only started playing football in 2019 under the tutelage of coach Mustafa Kayinda at Light College Katikamu.

“There was initially no football at school. Then they brought in the coach and I just felt like I loved it from the first day,” the soft spoken and evidently shy Naggayi says.

With her short time in the sport, Naggayi has not found anyone to look up to yet but is “looking forward to turning this into a professional career.” 

Joan Naggayi

Age: 17 (born January 16, 2004)
Club: She Maroons
Position: Midfielder
Parents: Frank Lukenge and Agnes Lunkuse
Education: Windsor Primary School, Light College Katikamu
Currently a Senior Five student at Pride College, Mpigi.

Ikwaput eyes first double
Fazila Ikwaput needs no introduction as she has won this award before but she is hungry to at least become the first player to win it twice.

Following her exploits in the 2017 season, Ikwaput beat her then Olila High School teammate and goalkeeper Vanessa Karungi, Kawempe Muslim SS star, and award holder Hasifah Nassuna to the grand prize.

This year, she is in the running thanks to the seven goals she scored to finish as top scorer at the shortened version of the Fufa Women Super League (FWSL) in May at the Fufa Technical Centre, Njeru, as she led Masindi-based side Lady Doves to their first ever top division title.

But she also scored five in the Cecafa Caf Women’s Champions League qualifying tournament in Nairobi in August and September in Lady Doves’ unsuccessfully attempt to make history as Uganda’s first representatives at the continental showpiece.

Unfortunately, while at it, she aggrevated an injury picked up in the semis of the FWSL and therefore missed the chance to end the contest during the Crested Cranes’ exploits at the Cosafa Women Championship in South Africa and the second round of the Africa Women’s Cup of Nations qualifiers against Ethiopia last month.

But that is the least of her worries as she will surely force her name back into reckoning when fit. 

Turnaround
This after all is a player that has been in the national team fold since 2016 when she was relatively unknown. At the time, Crested Cranes coach Majidah Nantanda took a leap of faith to induct the lanky, quiet but fast-paced and hardened forward she had spotted during a scouting trip in 2014 into her Cecafa Women Championship squad.

Ikwaput’s career took a 360 degree turn. She had received her formative training in her home village in Nakaloke under coach Shaban Bulolo and later in Soroti with Divine Girls under coach Mike Elebu and Eastern Heroes. 

And here she was before any league football of note taking charge of the national team striking roles alongside a highly-rated Nassuna. The two formed a formidable partnership scoring freely and creating chances for each other. Ikwaput has never looked back.

She immediately joined Olila High School, which she led to the inaugural Fufa Women Cup title in 2017 after a stellar recruitment exercise from coach Saddam Pande that saw future household names like Vanessa Karungi from Mukono High, Cissy Nantongo and Wilmer Nantumbwe (She Corporate) and midfielder Riticia Nabbosa (Western United) join the Soroti side too.

The achievements did not only earn Ikwaput a car but also a short professional contract with Gokulam Kerala in the first-ever India Women League that was played in a tournament format between March and April 2018. She went with Nabbosa and scored five goals in six appearances.

In July 2018, Ikwaput went to Kazakhstan top tier side BIIK Kazygurt for which she featured in the Uefa Women Champions League and scored the much talked about goal against European heavyweights Barcelona in their first meeting in the round of 32. 
Kazygurt won that first leg 3-1 but Barcelona won the tie after a 3-0 win in Spain, which Ikwaput missed due to injury. 

She made a quiet return home and joined Lady Doves for the 2018/19 season and has since stayed put, making herself even more relevant with this year’s success stories.

While she seems to have a relationship with injuries, Ikwaput is still focused on being the best she can be. This time though, she goes up against teammate Daisy Nakaziro, who had a stellar season in their goal.

“I feel I did my part to help the team win and so did Daisy but it is not in my place to say who was the better player in our team,” she says.

The trends

Former nominees have won the award twice – in even years (Nassuna in 2016 and Aturo in 2018).

First time nominees have won the award thrice – in odd years (Nabweteme, Ikwaput and Nalukenge in 2015, 2017 and 2019)
Nassuna is most nominated with four gongs (2015, 2016, 2017 and 2019).

Aturo, Ikwaput and Najjemba follow with two.
Ikwaput and Nassuna (2017 and 2019) are the only former winners to be re-nominated.

Fazila Ikwaput

Age: 24 (Born August 4, 1997)
Position: Striker
Club: Lady Doves
Parents: Abdallah Labong and Sophie Nabwire
Education:
Primary: Grace Primary School
Ordinary Level: Victoria High, Mt. Masaba, Mbale Progressive 

Nakaziro deepens goalkeepers’ shout

Lady Doves goalkeeper Daisy Nakaziro almost always has the odds stacked against her. Even in the award, she seems to be in more than just a race for the Airtel Fufa Women Player of the Year.

First, even her own club’s fans have to convince themselves that the clean sheets and her leadership role as captain are more important than Ikwaput’s match-winning goals in both the Fufa Women Super League (FWSL) and the Cecafa region Caf Women’s Champions League qualifiers in Kenya.

“Before anything, I am very grateful for the nomination,” Nakaziro, who was voted best goalkeeper in both tournaments, says.

“In my heart, I feel I can win because my performances were much better this year. I have to believe in myself.

“That said, this is a team sport and I believe everyone did their best in their department. Fazila did well in finding goals so it is down to those that vote telling us which department had a telling impact.”

Nakaziro has been part of the national team setup for a while but always plays second fiddle to Ruth Aturo, who became the first goalkeeper to win this award in 2018.

“I have the exposure and confidence in my abilities but I believe that the national team is about timing. When that opportunity comes, I need to be ready to play my role,” adds the goalkeeper who had her full debut at the Cosafa Women Championship in October in the 5-1 win over Djibouti.

‘Wrong’ inspiration

Nakaziro has always almost been ready to grab her opportunities. She never set out to be goalkeeper but it was the only chance to belong when she joined Masaka SS from Kako Primary School in 2009.

“I did not know about football when I joined, I played netball in primary school. But I was inspired to join football by a player called Naume Nagadya,” Nakaziro said. 

Nagadya, an all-round midfielder, last represented the national team in 2016.

“I wanted to be like her. But because I was also playing netball, the coach, James Kisekka, decided to try me out in goal and it worked,” she says.

She joined Lady Doves from Muteesa I Royal University, which had a team in the Fufa Women Elite League when it was still the topflight division, and her form turned the team into a tight defensive unit in their first ever topflight season (2018/19) as they finished runners-up in a season Uganda Christian University (UCU) Lady Cardinals dethroned Kawempe Muslim.

The next season 2019/2020 was washed out by Covid-19 but Nakaziro finally laid her hands on the trophy in the shortened 2021 league format. This came with the best keeper’s glove which only ignited her hunger for individual accolades.

Daisy Nakaziro

Age: 24 (September 22, 1997), Position: Goalkeeper, Club: Lady Doves
Parents: Joseph Wamala and Jessica Nabusibwa
Education
University (2015-2018): Muteesa I Royal University (Bachelor’s degree of Industrial Art and Design)
Advanced (2014) and Ordinary (2012) Levels: Masaka Secondary School
Primary Leaving Examinations (2008): Kako Primary School - Masaka