Africa-Press – Uganda. In this era where money has bought souls in the football circles, loyalty is no longer a currency. But there’s still a few produced in the rare laboratory of love and dedication beyond what money can offer.
Raymond Timothy Komakech is one of the rare breeds whose magnificent contribution to football has scarcely been recognized. Unfortunately, Koma, as was fondly called by both the young and the old, is not here to read this, physically.
The news about his death filtered through the social media last week after Ndejje University announced that the 35-year-old had succumbed to a kidney failure at Kiruddu Hospital after battling the ailment for three years.
Converted from Handball
Komakech was admitted to Ndejje University in 2008 under a sports scholarship through handball. He was retained at the campus after completing his Bachelors of Information Technology in 2012 and then attracted to the football project.
He joined the technical ranks in 2012 and then took over as caretaker after the demise of coach Simon Okumu in 2013.
Okumu had promoted the team to the Fufa Big League in 2009 after finishing runners-up in the Buganda Regional Super Mini-league.
Cult-hero
Since then, Komakech had become a cult-hero at Ndejje University and the surrounding area. He doubled as the university team’s head coach in the University Football League concurrently. At Ndejje University, Koma was football and football was him.
He hit the climax in the 2017/18 season when his students emerged winners of the Elgon Group to earn a direct promotion and went on to add the icing on the cake by winning the championship. Unfortunately, for Komakech as an individual, the award for best coach had been scrapped. By that time, the coach had already prepared himself by attaining the Caf B licence to coach a topflight team.
His team did not last more than a season and was instantly relegated back to a league they have featured the most number of seasons. The club has endured turbulent times surviving relegation in some instances due to the instability caused by the ever-revolving student-player roster but Komakech was the bond that kept everything intact.
“Sometimes he would use his own money to facilitate the team whenever there was a delay at the university; he was hardworking and always wanted to see things done in the right way, honest and friendly,” Komakech’s former handball partner, player and goalkeeping coach until his demise, Ibrahim Kongo tells this paper.
He was loved both in and out of the campus because of his generosity. He was very active in community projects like repairing boreholes around the outside community
Fufa announced that teams will observe a moment of silence before today’s games in his honour.
Komakech’s body will be laid to rest on Saturday, November 4, in Nwoya District.
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