It has been a rollercoaster year with ups and downs in relation to Rwandan football. There were memorable events, the high points and the low points of which the football fraternity would like to improve going into 2023. Times Sport takes a look at the major highlights in Rwandan football for 2022 as the year gets to its twilight. Gatete’s homecoming The return of Rwanda’s legendary footballer Jimmy Gatete is one of the major highlights that shaped Rwandan football in 2022 given that he had never stepped his foot on the Rwandan soil for nearly a decade. The former Amavubi striker is among several other football legends who graced the official launch of the Legends in Rwanda event gala that took place in Kigali in October. Senegalese football legend Khalilou Fadiga, Cameroon’s Patrick Mboma and Roger Milla as well as Ghana’s Anthony Baffoe were among African football greats who joined him for the pre-event of the forthcoming Veteran Clubs World Championship (VCWC) which will take part in Kigali in 2024. Gatete is especially remembered for the winning goal he scored against Ghana to give Rwanda the first and lone qualification to a big continental tournament, the 2004 Africa Cup of Nations. The miracle of Huye The Rwanda national U23 team pulled off arguably the greatest miracle in the country's football history though they failed to qualify for the U23 AFCON which will be hosted by Morocco in 2023. The Amavubi U23 were paired against Libya in the first qualifying round. They were battered 4-1 in Tripoli before they pulled a historic comeback in Huye a week later. Yves Rwasamanzi’s starlets won the game 3-0 with a brace from skipper Clement Niyigena before Prince Rudasingwa’s late spot kick completed the comeback to sail through to the next stage of the competition. They then lost 1-0 to Mali on aggregate and crashed out of the AFCON U23 qualifiers but their exploits in Huye made Rwandans believe again and remain in the history books of Rwandan football. APR clinch third league title in a row The Army side yet again showed that they are kings of the game on the domestic level when they won their third consecutive league title in July. APR last season faced stiff challenge from Kiyovu Sports till the final league fixture but they eventually won the title with a one-point lead ahead of the Green Baggies. It is worthy to note that they went fifty games unbeaten, a run was brought to a shocking end by Mukura in February. Ferwafa gets new technical director The Rwandan Football Federation had been without a technical director, a position that had been vacant since Hussein Habimana left the office in 2020. French man Gerard Buscher was appointed to assume the role in September and was tasked to draw up strategies for the various national teams and football in general to flourish in Rwanda after years of failures. A year marred by controversies in the league Definitely, nothing goes on smoothly and 2022 was the year that was shaped by various controversies in Rwandan football. One of the controversies worth noting was Gasogi proprietor Charles Nkuriza Kazooka who threatened to pull his team out of the league due to what he termed as bad officiating against his team. The attempt to withdraw from the competition in January 2022 came about after his side scored a clean equalizer against Rayon Sports but the referee controversially ruled it offside. It became a major talking point before he later rescinded his decision. Again, Ghanaian attacker William Opoku Mensah was playing for Mukura Victory with a supposedly expired working permit. An impasse arose between him and the club, which resulted in both parties parting ways two months before the season ended. He later dragged Mukura Victory to FIFA for unpaid bonuses and FIFA asked the club to pay him an amount of $11,000 as compensation. Moroccan coach Adil Mohamed is another figure in Rwandan football who hardly missed on a series of controversies despite the fact that he was coaching APR FC a team that puts discipline Adil was involved in rows with the media since he arrived at the club but things turned from bad to worse when he started drawing himself in a spat with his own players and bosses before he was shown an exit door in October. The Moroccan gaffer was first caught in a media brawl with then club skipper Jacques Tuyisenge as both men accused each other of sabotaging. Again, this season also saw Adil caught in a public spat with current club skipper Djabel Manishimwe. The duo was in a blame game over the club’s torrid run of form in continental and local football competitions. He was handed a suspension and has since not returned to the club. Five players born abroad get Amavubi callup The technical team of the Amavubi invited five players who were born and bred in Europe to feature for the Amavubi. They were invited after a scouting report done by Times Sport. The players namely Sven Kalisa born in Luxembourg, Hakim Sahabo, Glen Habimana and Trey Itangishaka born in Belgium as well as Gilbert Ishimwe born in Sweden were invited to play for Amavubi for international friendly games against Equatorial Guinea and St. Eloi Lupopo. The five players are part of the country's project to give chances to many Rwandan players born abroad.
