A momentous podium ceremony befittingly deserves every successful star.
From the evident toil in training drills where flying tackles are evaded, the build-up plays, the vigorous match situations and the final reward of scoring a beautiful goal, a football star merits a fruitful reward.
At a time when the men’s football in Uganda has been dominant and most popular throughout the country, here comes the fast rising women version.
Whereas Uganda is now ranked 62nd in men’s football, the best ever ranking in the history of the game, the country does not have a global rating in women football due to lack of international matches.
To give credit where it is due, Uganda has in the past 12 months woken up from the slumber and there is a slight ray of hope now that there is serious action in schools and university competitions, female beach soccer and the FUFA national women elite league.
In a way to motivate the female football players, Uganda Sports Press Association (USPA) and Federation of Uganda Football Associations (FUFA) specially recognized the excelling personalities for the year past.
First, in the Airtel – FUFA awards that were held on 13th December 2015.
The awards offered that exact crucial plat-form to recognize and reward talent.
Away from the jersey and track suit attires, now the stars donned fancy suits and flashy dresses of all colors for the ceremony which took place at the spacious Victoria Hall – Speke Resort Munyonyo hotel, on the shorelines of Africa’s greatest fresh water body, Lake Victoria.
The three lady nominees for the woman footballer of the year award – Hasifa Nassuna, Winnie Babirye and the eventual winner, Sandra Nabweteeme were just elegant for the night.
The other lady nominee for the overall coach of the year award was a one Faridah Bulega nominated alongside two male coaches – Mark Twinamatisko and Ayub Khalifana.
The tasty food and drinks, mesmerizing décor, lighting and awesome overall table arrangement earned the event organizers that crucial bonus point.
Add to the eloquent sound system, amplified by the expert emceeing of Ahmed Hussein and Ben Mwine, the event was colorful.
Enter the awards; the main focus among others was who scoops the female and male overall player of the year award.
Predictably, Faruku Miya won the male award, edging Vipers’ teammate, Kezironi Kizito and Orlando Pirates’ Yassar Mugerwa.
The tense but that exciting moment was when the pepsi woman footballer of the year award was announced.
Kawempe Muslim secondary school football club team-mates; Hasifa Nassuna and Sandra Nabweteeme made the final shortlist alongside Buikwe She Red Stars’ Winnie Babirye.
To announce the winner was Jeff Ssekandi, an official representing Pepsi in Uganda.
Seconds to the D-moment, there was profound silence whose equivalence could be summed to a long abandoned mass grave tomb.
Sandra Nabweteeme was declared winner amidst wild cheers and claps from the over 300 guests at Victoria Hall.
She wiped her face, hugged the two other finalists and shed that obvious joyous tear drop.
In the stands was the victor’s mother, herself a former footballer.
“I dedicate this award to my mother for encouraging me play football when I was young up to this stage. I thank FUFA, Airtel and other sponsors for organizing these awards to recognize our efforts” the coarse voiced 18 year attested in her brief victory speech.
Besides the award, Nabweteeme and the male winner drove home in brand new cars accompanied by fully connected Decorders from Pay Television company – Azam T.V, who also fully finance the Uganda Premier league.
One other great winner on the night was Faridah Bulega, the only lady in Uganda and the entire East African region who is the head coach of a league team.
“It is an honour to win such an award. I thank all my players, fellow coaches, media, FUFA and its partners” she noted in her award acceptance speech.
By the close of the awards business, everybody was contented beyond reasonable doubt, this red carpet glamorous event was sparkling and truly befitting the hard earned sweat of the Ugandan football players.
Most recently, the Uganda sports journalists through their umbrella body, USPA included the category of best female footballer on the long list of best sports personalities in the country.
Nabweteeme was once again singled out for her immense talent that witnessed her score over 100 goals in FUFA recognized football competitions.
To reward the female excelling footballers is as motivating as it would have been to the male.
Because of the awards, Nabweteeme can now drive courtesy of a brand new vehicle she won.
This is enough motivation for the thousands of budding female football stars in primary and secondary schools.
Let us maintain the practice of rewarding the female stars and help the more talents unearthed, nurtured and groomed for the better.
To this end, we shall attract the sponsors who will evidently inject millions to uplift the game’s image and prosperity.
