After two failed attempts to wrestle the league title from APR FC, Kiyovu Sports have embarked on a major shakeup, releasing as many as seven top players as they hope to rebuild for the 2023/23 season.
The Rwanda Premier League titles for the 2021/22 and 2022/23 season were theirs to lose but the Green Baggies on both occasions faltered at the last hurdle allowing APR to snatch the trophy from them.
This transfer window, Kiyovu have parted ways with top players like Ismail Nshimirimana, who was arguably their best player in the just-concluded season, Burundian counterpart Abedi Bigirimana, Riyaad Nordien, Erisa Keith Ssekisambu, Bienvenue Mugenzi, Ally Serumogo, and Thierry Ndayishimiye in a major squad overhauling which has shocked pundits of the local game and club supporters at large.
They have also appointed Greek national Petros Koukouras as their new coach as they hope to get it right this time. Koukouras’ appointment came after the club decided against extending contracts for head coach Alain-Andre Landeut and his assistant Jean de Dieu Mateso who are shown an exit door at the end of the season.
Reasons for massive overhauling? Kiyovu invested so much to end their league trophy drought since 1993 but APR remained in their way, especially when the league reached the decisive stage.
But the past two seasons have been nothing for the Mumena-based side but just disappointments, prompting the club to move on without some of its top stars, a surprising move that left so many questions among club supporters, rival clubs and pundits.
It is evident that the club management is working on a new project:
Cutting off wages of big players
Certainly, the issue of player wages is one of the key reasons why the Green Baggies have made all their top players leave.
The likes of Ssekisambu, Norodien, Bigirimana and others are huge earners and, with the club failing to win a laurel for two seasons, they had to do away with them to balance the cheque books.
-Player mentality
Kiyovu allowed APR to come from behind and win two league trophies, leaving football pundits and connoisseurs of the game questioning players’ mentality to win.
They seem to have a weak mentality and since it happened twice, it is embedded in their brains and could easily come back and haunt them at the same stage if the squad had been maintained.
African clubs mostly do not have psychologists to psyche players in situations like this and they choose to release them and bring new players.
Who will Kiyovu sign?
Kiyovu have named young Greek coach Koukouras as their new head coach but they are yet to start their transfer business.
The club still has Fred Muhozi and skipper Yves Kimenyi, two players around whom Koukouras can build his new team.
They are expected to bring in a couple of players from other African countries, whereas they will also scan the local market for good talents.
As has been the norm of Kiyovu, expect at least one high profile player to sign this window.
Just like for the past two seasons where the club signed Ugandan national team skipper Emmanuel Okwi in 2021 and former South African U20 star Riyaad Norodien the following year, another star is likely to join the club and be part of the new football project.
Kiyovu have shown that they have the eye for quality talents but will they be third time lucky in player transfer and also go a step further in winning the league?
Well, time will tell and the current transfer window will have a word on how the team will fare next season.