Goalkeeper Karungi returns to Denmark with points to prove
Done Deal. Karungi puts pen to paper on a two-year contract at new club Boldklubben af 1893 (B 93). She left for Denmark yesterday. PHOTO / COURTESY
What you need to know:
- Karungi, who has since she announced herself on the scene in 2017 been behind Ruth Aturo and Daisy Nakaziro in coach Faridah Bulega’s pecking order, believes she is “the best” and will making proving it the basis of her two-year contract at new club Boldklubben af 1893 (B 93).
Ugandan female goalkeeper Vanessa Edith Karungi returned to Denmark yesterday with a mission to prove that she is Crested Cranes’ best goalkeeper.
Karungi, who has since she announced herself on the scene in 2017 been behind Ruth Aturo and Daisy Nakaziro in coach Faridah Bulega’s pecking order, believes she is “the best” and will making proving it the basis of her two-year contract at new club Boldklubben af 1893 (B 93).
Her goalkeeping coach at her local club She Corporate Hassan Isa described her as “the best talent in the country although others have worked really hard to be where they are.”
For the 21-year-old Karungi, the move which pits her among the first-ever Ugandans to move straight from the amateur ranks at home to the professional ones in Europe and “calls for me to work harder than before so that when the call comes, I am walking straight into the team
Sustained stay
Fazila Ikwaput, who had a few months’ separate stints in India and Kazakhstan will lay claim to being the pioneer but Karungi hopes for a more sustained stay that will see her push to play for even bigger clubs.
Most of the others like Jean Sseninde, Tracy Jones Akiror, Sandra Nabweteme, Yudaya Nakayenze, Joan Nakirya, and Sandra Nantubwe – among others, found their path through balanced opportunities to study and play football.
“I need to prove that I deserve to be there and there can be no excuses now because the facilities in Denmark are better and you are dealing with the right people,” she added.
B 93 hosted Karungi in May for a month’s trials which going by the new developments, she passed with flying colours.
“At the trials, they were looking for punctuality, sacrifice – to show that you can work on anything, hard work and definitely how you interact with teammates,” Karungi, famed for her penalty saving prowess, said as she hopes to inspire those she leaves behind at home.
“When the opportunity came, we had almost spent two years at home without anything happening at school.
KALUNGI BRIEFLY
Birth date: November 8, 1999
Club: B 93 Copenhagen
2016: She Corporate
2016-2018: Olila HS
2018-2021: She Corporate
TITLES
2017: Fufa Women Cup
& National Post Primary
Games (NPP) - Girls Football
Champions
ACCOLADES
2017: Best Goalkeeper Fufa
Women Cup & NPP
