Uganda Cranes and Motherwell defender Bevis Mugabi is targeting an appearance with the national team at the 2022 World Cup.
Mugabi has impressed for Motherwell this season and his ambitions now transcend his home continent Africa and Europe.
The 25-year-old featured at the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) for the national team. He faced DR Congo, Zimbabwe and Senegal at right back, only missing the Egypt tie.
After winning 10 international caps since 2018, Mugabi says his international career highlight has been AFCON. He has hope he will make the World cup.
“The highlight for me with Uganda was definitely playing in the African Cup of Nations,” he told the Times and Speaker.
“The game that stands out was the first game of the tournament when we beat Congo 2-0.
“People were shocked by the way that we played and how we dominated the game.
“Congo had players from big leagues in and around Europe and they couldn’t get close to us.
“We were putting our name out there as one of the threats within the tournament. We caught a lot of teams by surprise.
“Getting as far as we did and obviously getting out of the group stages, which we’d never done before, it was nice to be a part of history getting to the last 16 (where they lost 1-0 to eventual tournament runners-up Senegal).
“That’s definitely my biggest achievement so far with the Uganda national team for sure. My next ambition with Uganda is to qualify for the World Cup.”
He added; “Haven’t we all watched the World Cup since we were kids?
“I have a kind of crazy most vivid memory, it was when (Zinedine) Zidane headbutted Marco Materazzi (in the 2006 World Cup final between France and Italy).
“It was such a great tournament and something like that can happen to any of us.”