Overview:
But the nation has also missed out Joel Kitamirike, Savio Nsereko, Isak Ssewankambo while the likes of Chris and Alex Kiwomya never looked interested at all.
Last week, Fufa President Moses Magogo revealed that government had okayed over Ug shillings 1.5 billion for naturalization of players attached to Uganda.
There are several names across the Europe and in the United States including Manchester City’s Divine Mukasa, Burnley Bashir Humphreys and Chelsea’s Ryan Mcqeen Kavuma among many others that have attachment to the Pearl of Africa through their parents.
In the past, Uganda has capped the likes of Elio Capradossi, Uche Ikpeazu Mubiru, Martin Mutumba, Tobby Sibbick, Calvin Kabuye, Lorenzen Melvyn and Jordan Obita among a few.
But the nation has also missed out Joel Kitamirike, Savio Nsereko, Isak Ssewankambo while the likes of Chris and Alex Kiwomya never looked interested at all.
Money is very important in trying to lure other players as stated by Magogo citing examples of Senegal and Morocco among other nations that have benefited from the programme but it is not all about money in my opinion. Besides, 1.5 billion is peanuts.
“When we told the public we want this money, there was a lot of discontent, but I want to tell you that this is what other countries like Morocco, Senegal and others are doing,” he stated. “If you look at our National Team currently, you can see that there are several players like Elio Capradossi who have agreed to play for Uganda, and you can see that their quality is better,” Magogo explained.
However, he admitted that other nations are investing far less and despite not mentioning why, the reason is simple. Class attracts class.
For a player to get interested in representing a national team he has an attachment, it must competitive and consistently qualifying for major tournaments and competing for honours especially the Afcon.
The players Morocco, Senegal, Nigeria and DR Congo that have attracted come easily because they need national team football at high level and these countries assure you of that unlike Uganda at the moment.
Brahim Diaz who had a chance to represent Spain knows that with Morocco, he can still rub shoulders with the best at the World Cup because he believes Morocco has the quality to qualify for literally every tournament.
They get them young because it is easy to give up on their European national team dream and still enjoy the same with the big boys.
We get them old because they fear the risk of representing a team, they are not sure of giving them a chance to compete at the highest level and will wait until that dream is over.
Uche Ikpeazu for example only turned to Uganda after realizing the Nigeria Super Eagles chance will never come. Elio had to wait until all the doors shut for Italy, Jordan Obita the same and so is Melvyn who only accepted to make his competitive debut when quality waned.
In addition, all the latest attractions were easily convinced by the Cranes qualifying for the Afcon in Morocco.
At the moment, a player like Mukasa who still has the England Three Lions dream is difficult to get but could turn to us later when that dream is literally over.
For now, we could fail to attract the top quality but we dare to dream and the path taken by Fufa is good and could pay off in the future but most importantly, competing at the highest level consistently will it make it easy to get the likes of Mukasa and others.
