Kampala Queens appoint Hailegebreal
Hands on. Hailegebreal got his hands in the mud to get things going at KQ as soon as he was announced on Monday. PHOTO/COURTESY
What you need to know:
In Hailegebreal, they have a coach that has convinced at regional level that he likes to dominate games, something that KQ want to do but have struggled to do so.
Firew Asefa Hailegebreal believes he has got what it takes to turn Kampala Queens (KQ) into a more competitive side in “all competitions.”
KQ, under Hamza Lutalo, won the 2022/23 Fufa Women Super League (FWSL) which allowed them to play at the Cecafa region’s Caf Women’s Champions League qualifiers. However, they made a mess of the tournament which they (Uganda) hosted after Lutalo had been fired and replaced by Charles Ssenyange.
From there, the club went downhill. The rest of the league conspired to make KQ look like it was competitive as the results were largely positive, but no one could be sold the kind of football they have been playing since.
Ssenyange left in January and even his replacement Charles Ayiekoh, who left last week, was far from changing fortunes.
In Hailegebreal, they have a coach that has convinced at regional level that he likes to dominate games, something that KQ want to do but have struggled to do so.
He first came to Uganda as coach of the team that won the Cecafa U-20 Women’s Championship at Fufa Technical Centre Njeru in 2021.
Winner
In the decisive game against Uganda, the hosts took a 2-0 lead into halftime but Hailegebreal inspired his side to level the score by the 79th minute. He was eventually sent off in a spat with the officials but he had done enough to get his girls fighting and they eventually turned things around with a late winner to win the round-robin champion.
Guess who was in Uganda’s dugout then? Kawempe Muslim coach Ayub Khalifa. Khalifa will certainly be Hailegebreal’s biggest competition in the league.
“I know most of the (KQ) players from the national team and I have no problem with them,” Hailegebreal said in a short interview after his unveiling.
Adaptable
While he liked to dominate games with the U-20s, when he returned with Ethiopia’s senior women’s national team for Cecafa 2022, he showed he was adaptable to situations.
“The players make the system, the system does not make the players,” he added.
He lost to Uganda 1-0 in the semis after extra time but won 2-1 against Tanzania, with which they had drawn 2-2 in the groups, in the third place playoffs.
That ability to camouflage through games and the close relationships with players (Ethiopian players used to celebrate goals by running to hug him) make him a good appointment. But at KQ, being a good coach is never enough.
Lutalo was apparently fired for losing the dressing room. Ssenyange bluntatly put it in a press conference in Njeru that “players need counseling” while Ayiekoh was very vocal about the need for “young players” who listen. So, Hailegebreal will not need just to have a good team out there but also manage a dressing room of big egos.
