Nile Special Male Footballer of the year: Emmanuel Arnold Okwi
Rwenzori Female Footballer of the year: Juliet Nalukenge
Team of the year: Uganda U-17 Girls Football Team
The national U17 Women football team has been honoured for its outstanding performance in 2019.
Sports scribes under their umbrella body-USPA (Uganda Sports Press Association) honoured the the U17 National side as the team of the year 2019.
The Ayub Khalifa Kiyingi coached team had a memorable year to remember as they swept aside opponents to win the inaugural Council for South African Football Associations (COSAFA) U17 Women championship held in Mauritius before adding the CECAFA U17 Women Championship on home soil at the FUFA Technical Centre, Njeru. Kiyingi picked the award on behalf of the team.
The team was set to play Cameroon in the final round of the FIFA U17 Women World qualifiers before the tournament was cancelled by the world soccer governing body due to India’s innability to host the event under the prevailing covid 19 situation.
The awards ceremony was at glamorous annual USPA gala held on November 18, 2020 at the Kampala Serena Hotel, Victoria Ball room under strict Covid-19 guidelines.
The gala also marked the 50th anniversary for the sports scribes body and a cake was cut to commemorate the special day.
Okwi wins Footballer of the year Award
Uganda Cranes star player Emmanuel Arnold Okwi was also among the sports stars recognized during the Nile Special sponsored event. He was voted best player of the year 2019 by the sports media. He later finished 2nd runner up in the Main Award (Sports Personality of the year 2019) won by World 10,000M champion Joshua Cheptegei. Reigning World 800M champion Halima Nakayi was 1st runner up. Okwi was also 2nd runner up in a vote that had fans vote the best sports person of the year 2019.
The FUFA CEO Edgar Watson picked the award on behalf of Okwi.
Juliet Nalukenge voted best female footballer 2019
On the other hand, striker Juliet Nalukenge will be crowned among the Rwenzori winners as best female footballer at a later date.
At the same event the FUFA Drum football competition was also recognised as the 2nd best organised event after the Uganda Open Golf championship while FUFA was 2nd best well ran sports association after Uganda Athletics Federation.
