A few years back, very few women would venture and dedicate their career into football. Some still find it difficult to believe that a young woman would build a successful career in football and make a living out of their talent in the sport.

But AS Kigali women football club midfielder Alodie Kayitesi has defied the odds and is living her dream at just 23.

There is a lot of admiration about a number of women footballers in the country but people insist ‘small’ and ‘slim’ Kayitesi is "built differently”. Few, or none, would disagree that she is arguably one of the best women players in the league to date.

Who is Kayitesi?

Born in Nyarugenge District, Kayitesi is the last born in a family of four.

She fell in love with football at a tender age when she was in primary school. She was only 10 years of age.

Kayitesi started playing football with her classmates in the school compounds and later started representing her primary school in inter-schools’ competitions.

"When I was young, I used to play kids games like other children. But things changed when I was 10 where I started finding a niche in football, I started playing it little by little until it became my favourite sport,” Kayitesi told Weekend Sport.

"I had a classmate who at the time was playing for the AS Kigali academy. She used to tell me that I can do it in football, from there I started putting in more effort.”

It didn’t take Kayitesi long to impress despite her young age and people started admiring her talent.

She joined her colleague at AS Kigali academy in 2014, aged 14, and was later promoted to the first team the following year.

"Playing my debut as an AS Kigali senior team player was a massive achievement for me, I always remember that feeling,” she recalls.

Kayitesi is now in her eighth season playing for the Citizens with whom she won everything there has been to play for domestically, including the 2023 women’s topflight league title.

The creative midfielder sees herself achieving more than what she has under her belt in the future, with playing professional football for a foreign club one of her career dreams.

"I see myself as a professional footballer in the near future,” she said.

"It is not easy for Rwandan women players to get foreign clubs to play for because our league boasts a very small visibility. But since we started participating in some big continental competitions like the CAF Women’s Champions League, there is hope that I can finally attract foreign clubs.”

Kayitesi, who started as a right back, says that she looks up to former APR and AS Kigali defender Michel Rusheshangoga as her childhood role model.

"Rusheshangoga was my role model because I was right back when I started playing football,” she said.

She could play as a right back until a certain Igor Mubumbyi, her former coach, deployed in the midfield after he told her that she would be better off as a midfielder.

"At first, I didn’t like the new role but, as time passed, I got used to it and now I feel very comfortable in the midfield,” she said.

She won eight consecutive league titles and four Peace Cup trophies with Kigali City-sponsored club.

Her pride

Kayitesi could not have achieved what she is celebrating in football if she had given up chasing her dream.

She had to make some sacrifices to become the player she is now to the point that refused to give up even when her mother showed her that she was not happy to see her choosing football over other careers.

"My mother was not happy when she learned that I started playing football. But now when I look where I’m today, I feel how proud she is,” she said, adding that parents should not stand in young women’s way as long as they chose football over any other career.

"The important thing in this life is to live the life of your dreams. Parents should let their children decide what they want to be and the children also have to work hard to achieve their dreams,” Kayitesi

Kayitesi studied her primary school at Kagasunzu primary school in Nyarugenge and later went to APACE Secondary School in the ordinary level before she dropped out of school due to family issues.

She has now resumed her secondary school education and she is preparing to sit her senior six national examinations this academic year as a private candidate.

Kayitesi received her first national team call up in 2016. Till now she is one of Amavubi’s key players in the midfield.