Rwandan Amputee Football players, Fidele Gatete and Patrick Imanirutabyose, are happy with their new job at Pendik Belediyesi, a club in the first division of the Turkish league. Gatete and Imanirutabyose joined the Turkish side in October and they are regularly in the starting line-up. We are improving and adapting very well in the league. We just have to concentrate on the job at hand. We’re learning new things every day playing in a professional league, and we hope the experience we’re gaining here will be useful to upcoming young players,” Gatete said. Gatete, who is currently the captain of the national team, featured for Musanze while Imanarutabyose was playing for Rubavu. “We are looking forward to doing the best possible we can. We know it will be very difficult but we are ready for the new challenge at the highest level and help our new team perform well in every competition,” he added. They left Rwanda on October 23, and have already participated in their first training with their new teammates. The opportunity to play for a professional team is a reward for the impressive performance they showed at different competitions in the local league and Cecafa tournament held in Tanzania which Rwanda won. At the time, in 2019, Rwanda beat Kenya 2-1 in the final of the Amputee Tournament for East and Central Region which took place in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania. “This is another big step in our career, which shows that we are progressing well and heading in the right direction. We are confident that playing at the highest level will help our performance become even better. This is just the beginning and we are looking forward to making the best of this opportunity,” Imanarutabyose explained. “It is not only about us but also Rwanda and the young and upcoming players. We need to inspire more Rwandans to follow in our footsteps.” The sport is played with seven players on each team, six outfield players, and one goalkeeper. Outfield players use crutches and play without their prostheses. Players may have two hands but only one leg, whereas goalkeepers may have both feet but only one hand while players may not use crutches to advance, control, or block the ball. The pitch measures a maximum of 70 by 60 meters. The dimensions of the goal posts are 2.2 meters maximum (height) by 5.0 meters maximum (width) by 1.0 meter (depth). The game was introduced in Rwanda in 2015. It is played in eight districts countrywide involving 80 players.
