Football is a very popular game all over the world, played by people of all ages, men, women, and people with disabilities. although achieving a given goal or exceeding a dream requires hard work, persistence, and patience and displine.
As is the case with every player who has no support like Niyonshuti Salomon, his journey has been full of challenges. He was born in Ndera sector, Gasabo district in Kigali city who is 17 years old.
Salomon has an interesting life because of his “courage and motivational people around him”.He is a young man who is still studying in high school and he is in his Ordinary level. He is one of the best players in the Academy.He started playing football in his village but he took it as a passion and after having all these struggles he is now a great player who can represent the other youth who fear to express their talents.
When we talked, he told us about his football journey, where he started to love football and felt that his dream is to become a professional player and will play in major leagues such as English Premier League and also play for Rwanda and contribute to the country like any other citizen. He started by telling us that when I was a child, I loved football and I wanted to be one of the players like Jimmy Gatete and playing for big teams here in Rwanda such as Rayon Sport FC or APR FC which are my favorite teams in Rwanda. And there came this opportunity of joining Kefa Academy where i scored a cup winning goal for the club in 2018 tournament.
Patience, discipline, goal setting and big dreams are what help him in his daily football journey, where he started with little ability but perseverance because you have a goal like walking a long distance. Now that football is paying him all the basic things such as school fees, travel, clothes and other things he needs now he is going to sign a contract with Kiyovu FC which is in the first division Rwanda Premier league and he has confirmed that he will behave well and reach his goals soon.
He believes that patience and hard work, loving what he does, will help him achieve his goals and this is the advice he gives to his friends and the youth.
Niyonshuti’s manager in Kefa academy, Damascene whom we talked with told us about the difficult journey of football as a manager that it is difficult to find players who know how to play well and work hard with passion and discipline because when they start and see things going well they fall asleep and start taking drugs and get involved in other bad habits.
He tells us how even though Salomon had difficulty in reaching at the training grounds due to the long distance, he never gave up on his passion but still worked hard and obeyed everyone.Damascene says he is a promising player as he does at his young age and believes he will achieve more.
Niyogisubizo Jean de la Croix is among the ones we talked to and told us about the journey of players who are rising in Rwanda as a coach and he continued saying that “if you want something you have to be patient and work hard”. He says that Salomon is one of the few players who are respectful and know how to get along well with their teammates on the field or in daily life.
MUKANYANDWI Ernestine, known as Cadette, told us about football in Rwanda that it is difficult to find a team to join, especially one without support or a rich family that will always be there for you, that what is required is to work hard, be patient and have a purpose in what you do and respect them whether it is leaders or players in the game because Among the rising children, there is often the appearance of bribes and being discouraged as the coach has been focusing on the talent and he confirms that Salomon has shown him talent and he believes that he will continue to perform well in the main team of Kiyovu FC if granted the opportunity.
He concludes by advising other children who have such dreams that they do not understand what is going on, that there are coaches who are ready to receive them when they have talent not after bribes like the bad coaches” as his excellence Paul Kagame said.
