Uganda Cranes striker Brian Umony has finally admitted he wasn’t prepared for professional football when he joined South Africa’s PSL side Supersport United in 2009.
The ex-KCC FC striker captured the limelight in the 2007/08 didn’t only inspire KCC FC to their first league title since 1997 but also shone in Caf competitions scoring five goals in eight games as the club embarked on continental engagements thus caught the attention Supersport which signed him in July 2009.
Nevertheless, the expectations waned as Umony failed to breakthrough at Supersport United leading to loan moves to Pretoria University a year later and then MLS club Portland Timbers before ending up in Vietnam.
He returned to KCC FC in 2012 before Tanzanian outfit Azam SC snapped him up he is currently linked with a move back to old club KCC FC with reports emerging that Azam won’t renew his contract.
In his exclusive interview with The Observer, the dreadlocked striker who is in camp with Uganda Cranes ahead of Mauritania duel admitted he rushed into professional football.
“Truthfully, I wasn’t prepared for professional football because here in Uganda we depend on individual talent and when I got to South Africa, the training methodology was so exotic and difficult for me. That is why I struggled to settle in,” Umony told The Observer.
Umony who top scored in the 2009 CECAFA Senior Challenge Cup held in Kampala with five goals in six games has since failed to make a lasting impression on the national team something blamed both on injuries and form.
His last competitive goals for the striker on Cranes came in the 2012 Cecafa Cup in which he was also named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player (MVP).