Desabre summons 23 for Cranes' duty, names new goal keeping coach
Uganda Cranes gaffer Sebastian Desabre has summoned 23 players for the upcoming national team engagements.
The list revealed at the Federation of Uganda football association, FUFA’s weekly press conference at FUFA house in Mengo includes mostly foreign-based players with only four plying their trade in local league.
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The four from the country’s top tier, the Uganda premier league include Vipers SC’s duo of Milton Karisa and defender Nicolas Wadada, Masavu FC lethal forward Abraham Ndugwa and KCCA FC’s defender Timothy Awany.
In his justification of why he named only a handful of home based players, Desabre said that having had time with a host of them in the build up to and during the CHAN finals in Morocco, he needed this time to assess the foreign based players most of whom he has never worked with since he took over from Micho Sredejovic last December.
“I chose the list of 23players I have followed many local championships and the foreign players and for me my message is clear the players playing abroad are also important for the national team," he said.
"I managed to evaluate the local based players during the CHAN tournament in Morocco so I want to use these upcoming friendlies to evaluate the foreign-based players," he noted.
"This is my first list but I follow 50players some players are not on this list because they are just 23players in the competition. But I follow many players in the local league it’s important for me in the next camp to see other players."
The 23 will be evaluated in the two friendly games against a yet to be named side on the 24th of March and a home game against Malawi three days later.
The two games will be the team’s test ahead of upcoming international engagements against Tanzania, Lesotho and Cape verde in the AFCON qualifiers.
At the same presser, the French man also revealed new additions to his technical team. Sadiq Wassa feels the void left by Fred Kajoba as goalkeeping coach after the former left for training in the United States.
UEFA B licensed fitness coach D’Antonio Germone will help with player fitness for the two upcoming engagements, while one new Physiotherapist will offer assistance to Ivan Ssewanyana.
THE 23 SUMMONED PLAYERS:
Goalkeepers: Dennis Onyango Mamelodi Sundowns, South Africa, Salim Jamal (El Meriekh, Sudan), Robert Odongkara (St George, Ethiopia).
Defenders: Dennis Iguma (Al Nabi Shayth-Lebanon), Nico Wakiro Wadada (Vipers SC, Uganda), Isaac Isinde (Not attached), Brevis Mugabi (Yeovil Town, England) Murushid Jjuko (Simba, Tanzania), Timothy Awany (KCCA FC, Uganda), Godfrey Walusimbi (Gor Mahia-Kenya), Alex Kakuba (Feirense-Portugal).
Midfielders: Joseph Ochaya (Lusaka Dynamos, Zambia),Farouk Miya (Sebai FK, Azerbaijan) , Hassan Wasswa (El Geish, Egypt), Khalid Aucho (East Bengal, India), Geoffrey Kizito Baba (Than Quang Ninh-Vietnam), Milton Karisa (Vipers SC, Uganda), William Luwagga Kizito (CSMA Iasi, Romania), Abraham Ndugwa (Masavu FC, Uganda)
Forwards: Emmanuel Okwi (Simba, Tanzania),Yunus Ssentamu (FK Tirana), Edrisa Lubega (Floridsdorfer AC, Austria), Hood Kaweesa (Buildcon FC,Zambia)
