Mustafa Kizza has become the latest Ugandan player to find a new home abroad after joining Egyptian second division side Telecom. However, his transfer follows a trend that should cause concern within the local football ecosystem.

Kizza’s transfers have been both interesting and controversial. The left-back made headlines when he joined Canadian giants Montreal Impact in July 2020. However, due to Covid restrictions, he remained at his parent club KCCA until October 2020 , when international travel was made easier. His transfer fees are not disclosed, but Ugandan clubs have earned around Sh2.2 billion from several transfer fees during this year.

His three-year contract was terminated prematurely after a year, leaving him without a club until July 2022, when he joined Portuguese club Arouca.

The market value of Kizza, estimated on Transfer market website, dropped by Sh183 million from Sh1.5 billion following the move. After just six months in Arouca, his value halved before returning to KCCA in February 2023 as a free agent.

He then signed a two-year contract at Lugogo in August last year, but the contract did not see out its second season.

He joined Express at the start of this StarTimes Uganda Premier League season but has since left for free.

This is the crux of the problem: Ugandan clubs are losing more and more players without receiving transfer compensation!

Kizza’s decision comes on top of the recent worrying report from Fifa that Ugandan clubs did not earn a single penny in the first transfer window (June-September).

When Kizza first flew to Canada, Ugandan clubs earned Sh1.2 billion from the main window alone, while their neighbors Kenya and Tanzania earned nothing. The situation has since reversed: the Kenyan and Tanzanian clubs earned Sh1.06 billion and Sh3 billion while the Ugandans earned nothing despite the transfer of at least 18 players. The statistics also show that the average age of players leaving the country increased from 23.5 years in 2020 to 25.2 years in the September window.

Notable transfers from this period include former Villa captain Kenneth Semakula to Club Africain in Tunisia, Alex Kitata and Tom Ikara from Bul in Ethiopia, Travis Mutyaba from Villa to Bordeaux and Muhammad Shaban from KCCA to Al Hila Benghazi (Libya) . With the exception of Mutyaba, whose deal remains unclear, the players have benefited from free transfers. Interestingly, the Shaban deal reportedly involved over 1.1 billion shillings ($300,000)!

This is a worrying trend that the federation and stakeholders must address.

“It really bothers us,” said Decolas Kiiza, Fufa’s deputy general director in charge of football. “The reason why clubs don’t benefit is that player agents are more interested in players without contracts than in players under contract and then there is a lack of (sufficient) knowledge about the economy player transfers from most stakeholders.”

An agent who insists on anonymity enlightens us: “The so-called mid-level clubs do not want to spend a lot and therefore also prefer free agents.

“As an agent, I share the money with several other agents and with the player, so sometimes we just have to sign players on our own or get the ones we own to sign shorter contracts to be in business.”

During this period, Fifa revealed that a total of $6.45 billion (Sh23.5 billion) was spent on 11,000 transfers, the second highest amount on record. In Africa, Mali, Egypt and Nigeria led the way, earning over Sh46 billion, Sh40 billion and Sh35 billion from player sales.

Ugandan Male Transfers

(June 1-September 2) summary

Transfer fees received: 0

Average age of outgoing players: 25.2

Average age of outgoing players: 25.7

Transfer fees received in June windows