Sports

History made as top Burundian club appoints woman as head coach

Published

9 months ago

August 15, 2023

History was made in Burundian football after a football club in the country’s top division, Inter Star FC, appointed a woman as its head head.

In a first-of-its-kind appointment, 35-year-old Belyse Ininahazwe was announced as the new coach of the club on Tuesday to lead the team. In her excitement, she said she planned to lead “Inter Star to great successes like Pep Guardiola but celebrate them with humility like Zinedine Zidane”.

Speaking with the BBC’s Great Lakes Service, Ininahazwe said
she was delighted to be offered the job.

“Initially, I thought they were joking, but now it’s real – I am their coach,” she said.

Ininahazwe has had previous jobs as coach of a third division men’s team following a career spanning two decades both as a player and a coach.

“It’s going to be a bit tough now that I’ll be coaching a first division team, but at least working in a male-dominated environment is nothing new for me,” the mother of one added.

She said she grew up playing football out in the street as a child and growing up as part of a family with “far more boys than girls”.

As a player, Ininahazwe first joined a women’s club, La Colombe in 2002 where she won six national trophies and also played for the Burundian senior women’s national team.

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Sports

Al Ahly, Esperance to clash in CAF Champions League final

Published

48 mins ago

April 27, 2024

Akanimoh Etim

Two of Africa’s club giants, Egypt’s Al Ahly and Esperance of Tunisia, will do battle next month over two legs for the right to be crowned champions of the TotalEnergies CAF Champions League.

Title-holders Al Ahly and their long-standing rivals Esperance both booked their places in the final with dramatic semi-final victories over DR Congo”s TP Mazembe and Mamelodi Sundowns of South Africa respectively on Friday night.

While Al Ahly, winners of five of the last seven editions of the continent’s top draw tournament, with a record 11 in total, overcame TP Mazembe with a 3-0 aggregate victory in the semi-final second leg after a goalless first leg last Saturday, Esperance surprised Sundowns with a 1-0 victory in Pretoria to wrap up a 2-0 aggregate win.

The two-legged final will mark the third encounter between Ahly and Esperance in the Champions League final, with the Egyptians winning in 2012 and the Tunisians triumphing in 2018.

In 2023, the two clubs clashed in the semi-finals with Ahly emerging victorious home and away, securing a 4-0 aggregate triumph.

Esperance who are aiming for a fifth Champions League title, will host the first leg in Rades on May 18, with the return fixture scheduled in Cairo seven days later.

Sports

Former Zambian captain Rainford Kalaba discharged from hospital after near-fatal accident

Published

1 day ago

April 26, 2024

Akanimoh Etim

Former Zambian national team captain, Rainford Kalaba, has been discharged from hospital weeks after he was involved in a near-fatal accident where he sustained serious injuries.

The accident which involved a head-on collision between a Mercedes-Benz car in which Kalaba was in, and a truck, had initially sparked fears for his life and has since been in the Intensive Care Unit of the Zambian University Teaching Hospital (UTH).

The good news on the footballer’s progress was released by the UTH Public Relations Officer, Nzeba Chanda, who informed that the Chipolopolo legend has been discharged after showing positive signs of recovery.

“Mr. Rainford Kalaba has been discharged from the UTH-Adult where he was admitted after being involved in a road traffic accident two weeks ago,” Chanda said, adding that Kalaba will continue his recovery at his family home.

According to local media reports, the 37-year-old was a passenger in a Mercedes Benz when it collided with an oncoming truck in the south-eastern Zambian town of Kafue a week and five days ago.

In his active playing days, Kalaba spent the majority of his club career at TP Mazembe of the Democratic Republic of Congo, winning the CAF Champions League with the club in 2015 and the CAF Confederation Cup in 2016.

He also had a spell with clubsides in Portugal including FC Braga, and was a major part of the Zambian squad that won the Africa Cup of Nations in 2012 under Frenchman, Herve Renard.