Former head coach of the women’s national football team, Marie-Grace Nyinawumuntu, was earlier this week appointed as the Technical Director of the soon-to-be-launched PSG Academy in Rwanda.

She was part of a workshop that was conducted by PSG-Academy Head of Coaching, Benjamin Houri, aimed at training finalist candidates on the PSG-Academy methodology.

The successful candidates were announced based on their performances both in theoretical and practical sessions for the Technical Responsible role and the coaching positions.

Nyinawumuntu beat four other candidates, all men, to the Technical Responsible job.

"This is a position that so many women in this sport fear to take because they are rarely considered to show what they can offer, but, I was determined to prove that women are just as capable and can even do better,” she told Weekend Sport on Thursday.

While doing exams, both interview and practical, Nyinawumuntu says she was confident given her package of experience and qualifications in football management.

"I do not think I was appointed to be the technical director of the academy based on sentiment, I earned it,” she further added. "It is a position I am excited to take, I look forward to the challenge.”

Nyinawumuntu has been in coaching for over a decade, at club level and with the national team. She is best remembered for guiding AS Kigali women’s football club to eight consecutive league titles between 2010 and 2017.

"The PSG academy’s coaching methodology is quite different from other methodologies that I was able to learn or experience before. My main responsibility is making sure it’s implemented perfectly once the academy operations in Rwanda launch.”

A former centre-back for the national team, Nyinawumuntu holds a master’s degree in project management, and insists he had prepared herself for a top managerial job for a while.

"I was prepared to take such a position anywhere, not just at PSG academy.”

This publication understands that Nyinawumuntu and the entire newly appointed technical team have secured their appointment letters and will soon sign contracts of employment with PSG Academy.

After signing, the team will embark on the exercise of selecting young talents that will make the inaugural cohort of PSG Academy in the country.

The highly awaited academy will train both girls and boys.

Move in the right direction

Nyinawumuntu hails PSG’s decision to set up a football academy in Rwanda as a step in the right direction, and she is optimistic, in the long run, it will have great impact on domestic football and the performance of the national teams – men and women.

"It’s a good programme that will definitely benefit our country’s football because the academy is run by professionals from a big club in the world like PSG. We believe in their methodology, and the results it will produce in a few years.”

The academy is part of a three-year partnership deal that was signed between Rwanda and the French football giants in December 2019.