In many ways, Fahad Bayo was the odd-man out for Uganda Cranes in Saturday’s Group B 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Malawi at Namboole Stadium.
The Vipers forward was the only home-based player in the starting line-up that featured players from all over the world. The composition of the XI had individuals plying their trade in South Africa, DR Congo, Morocco, Scotland, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Tanzania, Turkey and the United States.
The match was also Bayo’s first high-stakes international qualifier with all due respect to his cap against Burundi in the home leg of the Chan qualifier last month, a game in which he scored his first international goal. Having been benched last Wednesday in Ouagadougou in the opening qualification match against Burkina Faso, coach Johnny McKinstry opted to throw Bayo into the deep waters that are a Cranes Namboole debut.
No player in the eleven that took on Malawi was younger than the gawky striker. At 21, he was the youngest member of the Cranes side that started and third youngest in the squad of 22 that was selected on the day. Only Halid Lwalilwa and Allan Okello are younger.
But Bayo, who has his fair share of doubters, struck a wonderful solo goal against Malawi to announce his arrival in national team colours in a grand style. It is a goal he will remember all his life but more significantly, it is one that has pressed his claims for the national team centre forward jersey.
Bayo has already established himself as the StarTimes Uganda Premier League’s dominant forward with a hot streak that has catapulted Vipers to the top of the table. His physicality and movement had been glaringly missed a day earlier when Vipers, in a bizarrely scheduled title contenders showdown involving the leaders and the holders KCCA, saw their unbeaten run come to an end.
We shall never know how the game would have gone with Bayo leading the Venoms line but what is clear that KCCA defenders John Revita and Samuel Kato had a less bothersome afternoon smothering the threat of Dan ‘Mzee’ Sserunkuma.
The opportunity he converted was out of nothing. He cleanly dispossessed centre-half Lucky Malata, advanced into the box and bided his time before rifling into the roof of the net with Brighton Munthali, the Malawian shot-stopper, well and truly beaten. Bayo had fashioned a chance and goal out of nowhere. He sniffed an opening once Malata hesitated with possession and used his muscular frame to legally wrestle and win the ball before sealing maximum points with aplomb. That goal, very different in its construction and execution from Emmanuel Okwi’s, took the life out of Malawi and effectively ended the game as a contest.
Those who malign Bayo point to the number of chances he puts to waste, such as his horror day against Wakiso, but strikers are nominally judged on the goals they score. Goals stick in the memory, missed chances fade.
Bayo is already a dead cert for Chan Cameroon 2021 and is increasingly looking like he will figure highly in McKinstry’s plans for the rest of this Afcon qualification campaign and the 2021 World Cup qualifiers next year.
Timing is key in sport and with McKinstry relatively new in the job, Bayo could have picked a more opportune time to hit form.
It also helps Bayo that he is playing regularly for Vipers at home and McKinstry together with his coaches Abdallah Mubiru and Livingstone Mbabazi can easily monitor him unlike, say, Patrick Kaddu who is based at RS Berkane in Morocco.
In Bayo, home-based players can believe that featuring in the Uganda Premier League doesn’t in any way diminish one’s chance of representing Cranes at the highest level. After all, Allan Okello was offered a run out late on.