Former Rwanda international striker Said Abedi Makasi has revealed to Sunday Sport that he will hang up his boots at the end of the season. Abedi Makasi, who turns 32 on August 20, was part of the Amavubi Stars’ squad that played at the 2004 African Cup of Nation in Tunisia. He last played for the national team in 2009 having earned 24 caps and scored eighty goals since making his debut in 2003. Currently playing for Rusizi-based Turbo King National League side, Espoir FC, the DR Congo-born forward says he wants to bring the curtains down on a career that started in 1997, and has seen him feature for not less than 15 clubs in Africa and Europe. In a rare interview with Sunday Sport on Friday, the former FC Brussels’ star confirmed his intention to retire from playing and concentrate on working on his coaching budges. He said, “I am preparing for my retirement at the end of this season. I have already started pursuing coaching courses because I need to stay on in football even after retiring; football is everything for me.” “When you have been in football all your life, it’s hard to leave it for good because it has become part of your DNA, which is why I am opting to go into coaching career as a way to complete my football passion. “I am self-motivated to become a coach and I think the sky is the limit as in as far as what I want to achieve in football is concerned,” stated the Espoir skipper. He revealed that he has already done his first coach training course under the auspices of the Rwandan football governing body, Ferwafa and he will do the second in June. Said Abedi has scored four league goals for seventh-placed Espoir in what will be his last season as a player when his contracts runs out in July. He says he got inspired to go into coaching by his former Amavubi teammate and current national team head coach Eric Nshimiyimana. Said Abedi, his Espoir teammate Elias Ntaganda with whom they played together in CAN 2004, are the only remaining players from the national team that was inTunis, who are still actively playing in the local league.
