The best players in Africa go to Europe, the second best go to Asia, the third best go to top football countries on the African continent, only the fourth-grade players who are not good come to Rwanda, a country ranked 131st in the world. These were some of the distasteful words spilled by Amavubi head coach Torsten Spittler on Thursday, August 29, commenting on the level of foreign players playing their trade in the Rwanda Premier League. In fact, no one asked Spittler an opinion on the current foreign quota in Rwanda, but he chose to talk about it before going on to the subject of the day which was about Amavubi's preparations for their upcoming 2025 AFCON qualifiers against Libya and Nigeria. Football is dynamic, football is not static. For Spittler himself, he must critically examine his utterance in relations to himself. He came to coach a team ranked 131st globally. But does it make him a bad coach? Absolutely not. Africa is blessed with many great talents that regularly move to Europe, Asia, America, or the other big teams on the continent. Some have to start from somewhere before reaching their final destination. Yes! That is life. If Spittler cares to know, Nigerian Williams Chimezie Eluebube was playing for Sunrise FC when they were relegated at the end of the 2023/24 season. He could even barely get playing time at the time but, surprisingly, he moved to Russia this season, and he is now a regular starter at top tier side Alania VL. The fact that a player chooses to play in Rwanda doesn't mean he is underperforming. I personally know foreign players who opted to sign for the likes of Mukura VS, APR FC and other teams during this transfer window, yet they had offers from top teams in South Africa, Algeria, Sweden, Finland and so forth. They opted to play in Rwanda. The influx of foreign players has even made Amavubi a better side after two years struggling to win a single game. The local players in the squad especially those from big clubs such as APR were relaxed but when the club started to bring in foreign players, it served as a wakeup call for them to up their game and Amavubi is now benefiting. Calling foreign players who come to Rwanda as fourth grade players is below belt and Spittler must apologize for his comments. When he tried to convince Police FC striker Elijah Ani to switch allegiance from Nigeria to Rwanda, did he see him as a fourth-grade player? Again, Spittler can do his work without attacking foreign players. He is a national team coach not a club coach. Any good coach can even spot a player in a third league team and make him a star. Rwandan clubs also want to rub shoulders with the best on the continent, the local talent in the league is not enough and with them, they can't compete with the likes of TP Mazembe, Simba, Yanga and other football heavyweights in the region and Africa at large. Spittler must be in his lane, Amavubi are not only about local players, even with the best ones are playing regularly at club level. There are many Rwandan players in Europe who need to be scouted. He must see a way of getting them to beef up his team rather than starting to attack foreign players. His comments aren't encouraging in anyway. While clubs want foreign players in the first 11 increased to eight up from six, the German suggests the number should instead be reduced to three, something which the German Bundesliga, the league of his native country, can't afford to apply. The writer is a journalist and a football agent. Views expressed in this article are those of the author.
