The future of East African football was on display in Kigali last weekend.
And it did not belong to one country.
Tanzania retained the girls’ title at the CAF African Schools Football Championship CECAFA qualifiers, while Uganda won the boys’ competition. Kenya and Rwanda finished as runners-up in their respective categories.
Tanzania’s girls defeated Kenya 3-0 in the final, with Salah Msagala, Eva Maiope and Anna Pascal scoring.
In the boys’ final, Uganda defeated hosts Rwanda 1-0 through Kennedy Okwi’s 39th-minute goal.
The results are significant because school football is increasingly being viewed as part of the talent pipeline rather than simply an extracurricular activity.
The tournament brought together young players from across the region and provided them with an opportunity to compete in front of coaches, administrators and scouts.
For Tanzania, retaining the girls’ crown suggests a developing strength in women’s football at grassroots level.
For Uganda, the boys’ victory underlined the country’s continued ability to produce young football talent.
Kenya’s girls, meanwhile, will leave Kigali with questions about how to bridge the final gap against their regional rivals.
The tournament also offered an important reminder about investment.
The winners in both categories received US$100,000, with runners-up receiving US$75,000 and third-placed teams US$50,000 for development purposes.
That money can matter enormously to schools and programmes operating with limited resources.
But the larger prize may be the players themselves.
East Africa has no shortage of footballing talent. The challenge has traditionally been creating consistent pathways from school competitions to academies, professional clubs and national teams.
The Kigali tournament showed that the competition is already intense.
The next question is whether the region can build systems capable of turning these young champions into tomorrow’s stars.
