Nabweteme hopes Iceland move helps in career rebuild
Talent. Nabweteme in action for Swosu college. PHOTO | AGENCIES
What you need to know:
- The Crested Cranes striker took to Facebook on Thursday to announce that she had signed her first professional soccer contract with Thor/Ka of Iceland.
Sandra Nabweteme has been seeking for happiness. She is now hopeful of finding it in Iceland.
Speaking to Daily Monitor in November last year after completing her engineering studies at Southwestern Oklahoma State University (Swosu) in the US, the 2015 Fufa Female Footballer of the Year said she had done a lot to make people around her happy and it was time to focus on herself.
The Crested Cranes striker took to Facebook on Thursday to announce that she had signed her first professional soccer contract with Thor/Ka of Iceland.
“I am so excited and I cannot wait to get to work,” Nabweteme wrote as she prepares to join the two time Iceland Women’s Premier League champions.
“I also signed with Felkrem Sports Agency to manage my professional career for the upcoming years.”
She later revealed to Daily Monitor that her “contract will last for a full season” but is “not sure when the league starts” as Iceland continues to observe stringent Covid-19 prevention guidelines.
Nabweteme joined Swosu in 2016 with high expectations to play college soccer but it became a bit frustrating for her. She had actually taken a mental break from the game to focus on her studies.
“Yes, there is competition but it is not normal soccer. The coaches want everyone to get an opportunity so the substitutions are rolling and you do not play enough,” Nabweteme, who played four seasons of college football, said.
Despite the challenge, in 2019, she set a record as the school’s all-time leading scorer, surpassing Burkina Faso striker Almata Rabo (74 goals) and winning a host of other accolades.
The 24-year-old was inspired to take on the sport by her mother Angela Nabukeera, who played for Kampala United in the early 2000s.
She grew up playing against boys in Katwe, had a stint at Proline Academy before joining Kawempe Muslim SS in 2009, where all there was for female footballers was schools’ competitions.
But these made a firm foundation for when the league started in 2014.
Nabweteme inspired Kawempe to the first two titles in the Fufa Women Elite League as top scorer in the 2014/15 (17 goals) and 2015/16 (23) seasons, earning herself the Swosu scholarship – the first Ugandan female footballer to earn a scholarship in the US.
She was joined by Sandra Nantumbwe, Yudaya Nakayenze, Tracy Jones Akiror and Joan Nakirya, while Natasha Shiraz (Denmark), Viola Nambi and Rita Kivumbi (Sweden) moved earlier.
Her national team colleague Fazilah Ikwaput also had professional stints at Gokulam Kerala in India and BIIK-Kazygurt in Kazakhstan in 2018.
