{"id":118501,"date":"2026-01-02T18:01:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T18:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/rayon-sports-sign-bangala-close-in-on-kwizera"},"modified":"2026-01-02T18:15:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T18:15:11","slug":"rayon-sports-sign-bangala-close-in-on-kwizera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rayon-sports-sign-bangala-close-in-on-kwizera","title":{"rendered":"Rayon Sports sign Bangala, close in on Kwizera"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Rwanda. <\/strong><\/span>Rayon Sports have stepped up efforts to reinforce their squad by signing Congolese defender Yannick Bangala Litomba and are close to completing a deal for Amavubi goalkeeper Olivier Kwizera.<\/p>\n<p>The club confirmed Bangala\u2019s signing on January 2, 2026, announcing on X that the defender had agreed terms and become their first signing of the window.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYannick Bangala Litomba is a new Gikundiro player. Welcome,\u201d the club statement read.<\/p>\n<p>Bangala is expected to strengthen Rayon Sports\u2019 defence as the club targets a strong return in both domestic and continental competitions.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, sources indicate that Kwizera is close to joining the club. An official announcement is expected once final details are completed.<\/p>\n<p>These moves add to recent changes at the club, including the signing of midfielder Faustin Likau Pizzalo Kitoko, as Rayon Sports look to build a balanced squad.<\/p>\n<p>Sources also say the club is in talks with at least three other players as it aims to assemble a team capable of challenging for trophies.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Rwanda<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Rwanda. Rayon Sports have stepped up efforts to reinforce their squad by signing Congolese defender Yannick Bangala Litomba and are close to completing a deal for Amavubi goalkeeper Olivier Kwizera. The club confirmed Bangala\u2019s signing on January 2, 2026, announcing on X that the defender had agreed terms and become their first signing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":118500,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,18],"tags":[1606,7621,2676,758,9182],"class_list":["post-118501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-amavubi","tag-olivier-kwizera","tag-rayon-sports","tag-rwanda","tag-yannick-bangala-litomba"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Rayon Sports sign Bangala, close in on Kwizera - Rwanda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Rayon Sports have stepped up efforts to reinforce their squad by signing Congolese defender Yannick Bangala Litomba and ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rayon-sports-sign-bangala-close-in-on-kwizera\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rayon Sports sign Bangala, close in on Kwizera\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Rayon Sports have stepped up efforts to reinforce their squad by signing Congolese defender Yannick Bangala Litomba and ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rayon-sports-sign-bangala-close-in-on-kwizera\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rwanda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-01-02T18:01:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-01-02T18:15:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2026\/01\/sm_1767365018.619082.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"583\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rayon-sports-sign-bangala-close-in-on-kwizera#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rayon-sports-sign-bangala-close-in-on-kwizera\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Rayon Sports sign Bangala, close in on Kwizera\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-01-02T18:01:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-01-02T18:15:11+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rayon-sports-sign-bangala-close-in-on-kwizera\"},\"wordCount\":182,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rayon-sports-sign-bangala-close-in-on-kwizera#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2026\/01\/sm_1767365018.619082.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Amavubi\",\"Olivier Kwizera\",\"Rayon Sports\",\"Rwanda\",\"Yannick Bangala Litomba\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rayon-sports-sign-bangala-close-in-on-kwizera#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rayon-sports-sign-bangala-close-in-on-kwizera\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rayon-sports-sign-bangala-close-in-on-kwizera\",\"name\":\"Rayon Sports sign Bangala, close in on Kwizera - 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