Christmas 2009 is here!

Festivities! A period of time in a year when all of us are fired up to indulge in various activities: dinning on turkey, visiting relatives and friends, drawing plans for next year, beating year deadlines and generally merry making. Festive sports initiatives where villages have organized cups and tournaments, bulls and goats are to be given away to the winning teams. Merry making! Welcome back Mr President; Lawrence Mulindwa bounced back as FUFA president for a second term. Departed are two ugandan Football legends Charles Katumba and Fred Lukwago. MY THEIR SOULS REST IN PEACE. The Warriors made history having spent 5 seasons and they finally worn their first championship.The World cup draws have been made and groups are interesting. We are watchiful of Tiger Woods but we reckon its a cold Xmas for him. The Emirates massacre happened, Wenger stunned and no handshake for Mark Hughes.Drama continues as Chelsea is humbled by the same team at the City of Manchester Stadium.
The less star studded Cranes Team is progressing well in Nairobi as a Semi final spot for them is now guaranteed.
As the UgaSport Team we are working on all these stories to come your way in the 15th Issue.

Scribes are busy!

As lots is happening on the sports scene both locally and internationally, the UgaSport Magazine team is busy too collecting, analyzing and compiling the 15th issue. The Uganda Super League is heating up as many key clubs will not have their men due to the CECAFA Orange Senior Challenge Cup which Uganda will have to defend in Nairobi – Kenya, opening with Tanzania in Group C starting 29th November.
The play Offs of the MTN FUBA Championship are a big mention as two bulls DMark Powers and Warriors are locking horns at YMCA Wandegeya. Still 17000 people "ran for it" in the MTN Kampala Marathon that was highly attended locally and regionally, the Kenyans have not only dominated the world long distance championship, but have come down to Kampala and lived to their expectation. After Maradona, next is Thierry Henry to make it to the black book of football bad boys. The World Cup list of participants in South Africa is now complete with late gate crushers. Amidst tears of joy and disappointments in Paris and Khartoum we have a complete list of 32 finalists including South Africa the hosts.
All leagues all over the world are trending normally with a couple of shocks here and there, unimaginably a 9 – 1 thumping of Wigan Athletic by Spurs. A lot is under way and our team of scribes is busy. We look fowards to an exciting coverage in the 15th issue.

The Legends' touch.

Stanbic/ CAF sponsored trophy tour kicked off in Uganda when Stanbic Bank ambassador Abedi Ayew ‘Pele’ visited Parliament on October 16, 2009. At the tour, legend Pele accompanied by CAF representative, Stanbic managing director, local ambassador Mark Ssali and Stanbic communications manager, Daniel Nsibambi displayed the CAN trophy to the speaker Edward Ssekandi.
Read more in the 14th issue……….

Uganda's living African football legend: Jimmy Kirunda.

During the fifteen years of his service in the national team, Kirunda played in five (5) consecutive Africa Cup of Nations tournaments: 1) 1970 qualifiers against DRC, 2) 1972 qualifiers, Uganda against, Sudan and Kenya, 3) 1974 finals in Cairo after beating Algeria in 1973, 4) 1976 finals in Addis Ababa and 5) 1978 finals in Accra Ghana where Uganda were runners up. In three of these tournaments i.e.1974, 1976 and 1978 Kirunda was the Captain of the Uganda team. This makes him the only Ugandan who has captained the national team to the highest number of finals of Africa Cup of Nations tournament and certainly the only African player who has participated in the highest number of times of the same tournament.
The highest level Uganda has reached in the African Cup of Nations bid is runners up in the 1978 Accra Ghana finals.
Being the man that captained the Cranes in the above encounters in Africa’s most prestigious football tournament and subsequently to the most memorable Ugandan feat in Accra, makes Kirunda the only living Ugandan football legend which all Ugandans and Africans at large are pround of.

On the local scene, Kirunda’s record of top scorer (32 goals) in the national league of 1978 stood for a good twenty years up to 1998 not withstanding the fact that, Kirunda for the entire time in the national team was a defender, the best Uganda has ever had so far. It is also worth recalling that it was the same Kirunda in the dying minutes of the game against Ethiopia in 1977 that scored the goal that made the Cranes qualify for the finals in Accra.

In addition to the above accolades, Mr. Kirunda served as the Cranes Team Manager 1989-1996 making him the longest serving manager Ugandan Cranes has ever had. During his tenure Uganda lifted the CACAFA cup in 1989 and1990 after a period of twelve years.

Jimmmy Kirunda heads the UgaSport Magazine publishing team and through his column in the UganSport Magazine: The legends diary, he shares his detailed football experiences both as a player and manager of the Ugandan national side - The Cranes.

UgaSport: We tell it all!

UgaSport is a monthly local sports magazine with the main objective of contributing to the development of local sports in Uganda.

The UgaSport team is headed by a renowned football and sports administrator, Jimmy Kirunda, who played and captained the Uganda Cranes for ten and fifteen years respectively.

On a monthly basis the UgaSport editorial team researches, analyses and informs the
Ugandan sports fraternity of the latest sports events, as well as bringing back the glorious moments of the past. As head of the team, Mr. Jimmy Kirunda also shares his long term experience of successful participation in football at the national and international levels as a way of inspiring the young up-coming sportsmen and women. As a long term strategy, UgaSport aims to provide employment to retired sportsmen and women as yet another way of supporting sports in the country.

Pick your copy of the magazine throughout the East African Region at a cost of UShs.3, 000; KShs.120; and TShs.1, 800.

In Uganda particularly; Kampala and other major towns of Masaka,
Mbarara, Mbale, Lira, Soroti, Arua, Jinja, Kabale Kabarole, Kasese and Rukungiri, Gulu and Kitgum, UgaSport Magazine is readily available.

Our outlets include major supermarkets, Universities and tertiary institutions around the country, filling stations; including all Shell select stores. Additionally, the magazine is readily available on the streets and is also circulated to over 56 major companies in Uganda.