Did Bokota deserve player of the year?

Well, now that Labama Bokota was voted the best player from the 2007 football season, there is going to be so much pressure on his shoulders to repeat his heroics from last season but the million dollar question is did he actually deserve the accolade? Rwanda’s adopted son beat off stiff challenge from Kabange Twite, Haruna Niyonzima, Eric Serugaba and Jean Baptist Mugiraneza a.k.a Migi to win the specially arranged SMS Media Player of Year award. Fine, the select penal of ‘experts’ thought and indeed believed that the Rayon Sports striker did enough in his debut season (actually half a season) in Rwandan football to make him the best player on the expense of guys like Kabange and Niyonzima! But APR fans would urge and rightly so in my opinion, that Kabange did more than enough throughout the campaign to deserve the accolade… only if the system was transparent and expansive as much as necessary. SMS Media deserve full credit for voluntarily coming up with the idea of recognizing the most outstanding male footballer. Thanks a bunch guys, your gesture could perhaps act as a catalyst to awaken the slumbering Ferwafa chaps. I wouldn’t hesitate to suspect how this is gone be a huge challenge to my friends at Ferwafa who have on two separate occasions planned but failed to put in actions the idea of rewarding outstanding players in a particulars season. However, the people would love to know what criteria were used when choosing the best out of the five nominees. Maybe the structure wasn’t as transparent as had been promised where the select panel was supposed, initially to compose of seven people including among others two journalists. Player-per-player analysis I am very certain it wasn’t straightforward for whichever panel of persons involved in the final selection to arrive at the best player among the five contenders because all the candidates played key roles in their respective team’s 2007 campaign. Serugaba—the bucktoothed striker was a grade above the rest of his teammates at Etincelles, scoring league12 goals and his general performance was key to the Gisenyi based club to avoid the much-dreaded relegation fight. Despite featuring for a lowly club, the 22-year-old caught the eye of the then national team coach Michael Nees who summoned his to the team on a couple of accessions. His outstanding performances for Etincelles were the core reason APR paid the much they did to lure him from Gisenyi to Kigali. Not the best striker to grace Rwanda’s local football and not a finished article either, but surely the young forward has the potential to become a better player and after all, coming among the top five best players in the country is in itself an achievement worthy beating the chest for his standards. Mugiraneza (Migi)—he’s being regarded by many as the next Olivier Karekezi despite the two not playing in the same position. Even playing for a non-starting club like Kiyovu could not hinder the promising youngster from showing his potential. Migi was the force behind La Jeunesse’s relegation survival during the 2005 and 2006 seasons and what happens to the youthful side after he left to join Kiyovu, they get relegated. At Kiyovu, the 20-year-old holding midfielder was restricted as far giving his best was concerned but still he was a cut above the rest, that’s why the military side paid a reported Frw14 millions to get him on their books. He could turn out be a bargain for the fee even at our standards. With a good trainer, he’s one for the future. Niyonzima—his one year stint at Rayon brought the best out of the talented teenage midfielder hence the nickname Fabregas in reference to Arsenal’s Spanish wonderkid, Cesc. It is widely believed that the best players in this country hail from Gisenyi—this part of the country is referred to as the ‘Brazil’ of Rwanda, so it’s not by surprise that Niyonzima along with his elder brother and former APR favorite Abdul Sibomana, Atraco’s Ismail Nshutinamagara ‘Kodo’, former Amavubi Stars skipper Desire Mbonabucya among others, are ‘Brazilians’. Already a fixture at the national team, the national U-20 captain made his breakthrough with Etincelles before making a loan move to Rayon at the start of last season where he was their best player until Bokota arrived. He scored goals, created them but above all, he had an immerse influence to the Blues cause through the entire campaign even when Bokota took all the attention away from him at the start of the league second round. The man from Kabasha (DR Congo) went to take Rwandan football by storm; people started comparing him to Jimmy Gatete during his prime between 2003 and 2004. Bokota—he came here as an unknown even to his own people in the Eastern DR Congo but after just a handful of league games for Rayon, he went on to become a hero, at least as far as Rayon faithful are concerned. Fourteen goals in just 10 starts is a record that would surely put the 25-year-old up there among the best strikers to ever grace Rwandan football. It took the Congolese born forward just ten football games to earn a Rwandan nationality and straight into the national team starting team. He never disappointed though as he made a dream start to his international career, scoring on his debut and was involved in two other goals against Liberia at Amahoro stadium during in qualifying campaign for CAN 2008 that gets underway January 20 through February 10 in Ghana. Kabange—I am going to be biased here. In my opinion Mbuyu Twite’s twin brother was simply the best player for last season by at least half a mile. I know my opinion is going to cause a debate of some sort among those who bothered to follow last year’s season with keen interest especially the fans of the two rivals clubs APR and Rayon but who cares, after all, that’s why I’ve been able to write in these pages for five years next at the end of this month. A midfielder by trade, Kabange finished as the league second top scorer with 13 goals, one behind Bokota and countless assists during an amazing season in which APR won an unprecedented quadruple that included the league, Cecafa/Kagame club championship, Amahoro cup and Primus cup. The 23-year-old was the most influential player in all this success as well as guiding his new club to the second round of the MTN Champions League. His swift pace, great technique and a good eye for goal was a key factor to APR’s success—if he hadn’t played for his native DR Congo, he would be first choice to get Rwandan nationality ahead of his twin brother, I am afraid. But how Bokota came ahead of him to the best player of year accolade beats my understanding nonetheless, bravo SMS Media. Shortest serving Amavubi Stars captain But Kabange can take consolation from fact that his twin brother became the first foreigner-turned Rwandan to captain the national team and in doing so; he will also go down in record books as the shortest serving captain! I don’t know what criteria (in Rwanda’s case) used to appoint a national team captain, his assistant and so on, but on Tuesday I was bowled over when I saw Mbuyu wearing the captain’s armband during Amavubi Stars’ training match against Atraco at Nyamirambo regional stadium. The match started with Nshutinamagara spotting the skipper’s armband but when he was substituted midway through the second half, he looked around as if not sure who to pass on the band. As he made his way off, he passed the treasured band to his replacement Aloua Gaseruka but what shocked me was to see the defender pass it to Mbuyu, an unlikely person in my opinion. I’m not being segregative but it’s something for the records. Unfortunately the Congolese born star was substituted four minutes later and at least received a warm ovation from a section of APR fans, which I high suspect was not for his contribution but for captaining the national team! Contact: hamza.nkuutu@gmail.com