Bulenga Football Academy’s meteoric rise

A project for young enthusiastic boys and girls between the ages of 5 to 17 years who play football is taking shape in Bulenga, a suburb of Uganda’s capital city, Kampala.

This is under the Bulenga Football Academy orchestrated by Adam Masembe three years ago in July 2018.

He was later joined by Gerald Mwanje and CAF “C” certified tactician Prince Geoffrey (formerly at Busujju Ssaza) and Ronald Ssali as the technical adviser.

The academy trains at Bbira primary School (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday) and recently train at the Palm Hill Arena every Thursday and Friday from 8:30 AM to 12:00 PM.

Humble beginning:

This academy started as Bulenga Soccer Academy and changed identity to Zera Football Foundation before changing face to Bulenga Football Academy.

“The reason for starting Bulenga Football Academy was to give youngsters an opportunity to play the beautiful game, develop new skills,” founder Adam Masembe states.

The Bulenga Football Academy’s motto spells out in bold; “We are the team they warned you about”

Achievements:

In its three years of existence, Bulenga Football Academy has participated in several youth tournaments and performed well.

As Bulenga Soccer Academy, they were finalists in Buganda Junior League (beat Rays of Grace in semi-finals) and lost to Streamline in the final.

They won the KAJUFA U-19 category having beaten Real Everton in the final.

As Zera Football Foundation, they won the first and second editions of the Celedi Community Empowerment tournaments.

Under Bulenga Football Academy name tag, they won the 2021 Fountain Tournament in the U-10 and U-13 categories, the 2021 Palm Hill Kids Cup (U-10 and U-8), the 2021 Celedi U-14 and U-17 tournaments.

In the U-14 final, Hassim Baita scored during the 1-0 score.

For the U-17 final, Bulenga Football Academy beat Kazinga 2-0 with David Ssekyanzi and Enock Bagenda scoring.

They were also finalist; falling 1-0 to Nansana Hot Spurs in the U-10 final of the same tournament.

The academy were also runners up in the Watoto Bulenga Village Independence Cup.

Some of the academy’s promising players include the 12-year goalkeeper Hamza Mukyele, a pupil at Anna Maria Primary School, Mugongo – Kyengera in P3, Ridhiwan Kayiranga, Farouk Nsereko, Conrad Ssali, among others.