Rwanda’s top female footballer eyes pro career

AS Kigali women football club striker Shadia Uwamahirwe is the best female player in Rwandan women football after leading the top-scorer’s table for three consecutive seasons since 2010.Uwamahirwe is from a Muslim family of Janvier Swaibu and Mwapili Mundanikure of Rubavu District, Western Province. She is the third born in a family of seven (five boys and two girls).The 18-year-old attacker, attended Ubumwe primary school, did her Ordinary Level (O’level) at ESIG Gisenyi before relocating to Nyarugenge district-based Solidarity Academy for her Advanced level (A’level) studies.Beginning of her football careerThe three-time women’s football league top-scorer started off her football career with Rubavu District women’s football team in 2006.A year later, she joined Gakenke district team where she played for one season before being recruited by AS Kigali women football club.A career on the moveThe five-time local women’s football league winner helped AS Kigali in the 2008 to dethrone former champions APR women’s football club ever in 2008/2009, and the City of Kigali team has gone on to win the league title for five consecutive seasons.She also helped her school (Solidarity Academy) to win the national inter-schools’ girls football championship title three times in a row since 2011.Her key role in the team also helped the Nyarugenge-based school, to finish third in 2011 and second in 2012 in the girls’ football category of the East African post primary (FEASSA) Games. The school is coached by AS Kigali coach Grace Nyinawumuntu.Uwamahirwe has been finishing top-scorer of the women’s football league since 2011 where she scored 24 goals, scoring a record 37 goals in 2012, and in last season, she netted 20 times to claim the top-scorer award for a third year in a row.What is her target in football?Since her childhood, her dream was to be a good footballer just like her two biological brothers; Abouba Nshimiyimana and Djouma Bizimana, who play for national football league sides Police FC and AS Muhanga respectively, and that she won’t rest on her laurels until she has played on a professional level.The country’s women football star striker has her eyes on becoming a professional footballer in future where she would able to compete against the best women players on the African continent and beyond.“But at the moment I am concentrating on my academics after which I will work consistently on my football career,” she told Saturday Sport.In 2011, Uwamahirwe recalls, “I got some offers from German women football clubs when we had travelled there for (Football for Peace) tournament, but I turned them down because I want to finish my studies.”What does her coach say about her?It’s by no coincidence that the most successful coach in local women football, Grace Nyinawumuntu is her coach both at AS Kigali and Solidarity Academy.Nyinawumuntu, who has played a big part in making Uwamahirwe, the player she is, says,” She (Uwamahirwe) is the best footballer I have ever coached in my career so far, she is even better than many male footballers when it comes to skill on pitch.”“She is a player, who can save her team at any minute even in a desperate situation. She knows what to do with the ball,” Nyinawumuntu said.“I consider Uwamahirwe as my daughter. I groomed her to improve her raw football talent and now she’s the best player of women’s football in Rwanda since 2011. She can even do much better and we will do everything possible to make her play realise her dream,” she states.Following the success in this year’s women’s football league title that AS Kigali won with an unbeaten record, the attention for Uwamahirwe and her coach turns to girls’ football title of this year’s FEASSA Games to be held in Lira, Northern Uganda from August 20 to 30.Last year in Bujumbura, Burundi Solidarity Academy finished second after losing on penalties to Uganda’s Kawempe Muslims following a 1-all draw in the regular time.Uwamahirwe is leading the national team, which unfortunately has not been very active in the last couple of years, but was given a new lease of life recently when former Nyanza coach Antoine Rutsindura was put in charge of reviving the team as the head coach, with Nyinawumuntu as his assistant.