It’s a shame he has neither been given the credit he truly deserves nor is he being appreciated well enough for what he did for Rwandan football but guess what, he is not even complaining. When things are not going his way, say like being dropped from the starting team for club or snubbed for national team duty, like a true great, Jimmy Gatete knows how to take it on the chin and let nature take its course. For nearly eight years of not only writing but also following closely Rwandan football, never have I heard Gatete questioning the integrity of his bosses, no matter how despondent he may be with the situation. The first time I remember him being at loggerheads with the Ferwafa leadership was around 2004/05 when he openly expressed his dissatisfaction with the disparity in players’ allowances where the professional players used to earn almost twice as much as their home-based teammates. Recalling the Gatete of that time, the most feared striker in Rwandan football, the most famous Rwandan sports personality in and outside his country, everywhere the name Gatete was synonymous with Rwandan football, who would blame him for wanting to earn as much as the pros, some of whom were just warming the bench? No player in Rwanda has gone through the highest and lowest emotions in their playing career than the former APR and Rayon Sports striker. He was once the darling of every Rwandan football fan and a time came when no coach wanted to even touch him with a barge pole. Some fans at one time even booed him. But through all those sticky times, Gatete maintained a cool and dignified head. Considering what he did for APR and Amavubi in the early years of this decade when he was at the peak of his game, you would imagine him in tantrums every time he felt ‘badly treated’ in terms of not getting enough playing time for both club and country, but he’s done exactly the opposite. Once nicknamed Imana y’ibitego (god of goals) for his very crucial goals against Uganda and Ghana that earned Rwanda the ticket to her maiden Nations Cup outing in 2004 as well as his galore of goals for APR at his peak, no player deserves better (but not special) treatment than Gatete, not only for his contribution to Rwanda’s footie but for how he handles himself on and off the field. He is a true role model for the upcoming footballers. Total contrast Only Gatete can be dropped or snubbed by the national team and he takes it professionally without going around in public (radio and newspapers) condemning and insulting his coaches and everyone else in that regard for not selecting him because like any great professional athlete, he knows no player is indispensible. In contrast, fellow pros and old timers, Hamad Ndikumana (Katauti) and Olivier Karekezi have persistently failed to come to terms with the fact that they’re no longer of any more value to the national team, at least as players. Unlike Gatete, who in the last five years has been in and out of the team but you never hear him running to the media to question the coach’s decision, Katauti and Karekezi have become masters at using the media to challenge not only the coach but Ferwafa and the sports ministry for not being selected! The pair, once good servants for Amavubi, need someone to pump some sense into their heads and be reminded that the best way to prove that the coach made a mistake not to select them is by performing well and consistently for their clubs rather than seeking public sympathy with endless selfish radio interviews, because whether they like or not, there can only be one winner in all this, and unfortunately it’s not them. Not once or twice and more recently last week, the duo was at it again after Amavubi lost 3-0 at home to Benin, telling whoever cared to listen to their trash on one of the local private Fm radio stations how they’re the team’s best hope for getting good results. And that the team is not winning because they’re not involved! Really? A decision has been made by the relevant authorities that there is need to start building the team afresh, forget the old has-beens, concentrate on the young players, and maybe in three to four years, Rwanda will have a stronger and better team that could stand and last the test of times ahead. But while Gatete has been smart enough to know this and decided to keep quiet about being snubbed, Katauti and Karekezi have kept blowing their own trumpets from every angle as if there’s anything new they can bring to the team that we’ve never seen from them before. Do our good old pros even keep in mind that Amavubi used to lose more than it won when they were all playing and that there’s nothing so new or very strange when it continues to lose without them for as long there is a long term project in process?. For a footballer to be regarded a legend, you don’t need to be just the best on the field, but how you handle yourself on and off the field. Great players don’t go around shouting how good they are, they let their foot do the talking and the neutrals to judge. nku78@yahoo.com
