Ethiopia Neged Bank unveils unprecedented Football players’ contract to add the country’s most prominent women player Loza Aberra in to its squad that brings together more than a dozen national team footballers. The only Ethiopian women international Loza signed a one year contract that enables her to collect 50,000 Birr monthly salary that go along with a 25,000 Birr Professional Footballer’s monthly allowance.
Back from a brief honeymoon, the newlywed Loza joined the star studded four times Ethiopian champion Neged Bank in a one year contract becoming the highest paid women footballer in the country.
The flamboyant goal machine scored 30 goals in 14 matches to steer Maltese side Birkirkara to championship as well taking home the Player of the Year award along with top scorer’s accolade. With so many honors under her belt, the 22 year old was match speculated to join a European side notably English club. But a sudden change of mind, Loza put pen to paper to help “The Money Bags” back to the championship title after four years of misery.
According to reports from the club Loza became the most expensive women player in Ethiopia.
A 100000 Birr bonus is also awaiting the striker is she finishes the season as top scorer and making her side champion.
“I joined Ethiopia Neged Bank taking number of reasons into consideration including the prominence of the institution as well its commitment to Women’s Football,” Loza told reporters.
Loza joined Neged Bank after a lavish contract deal
Heavy weights crowded CAF Presidency race
Mamelodi Sundowns owner Patrice Motsepe will be confirmed as a surprise candidate for the Confederation of African Football (CAF) presidency.
After initial suggestions that current president Ahmad Ahmad would run unopposed for re-election, the race has accelerated dramatically over the past three days.
Just ahead of the deadline for applications, Ivorian Football Federation (FIF) endorsed the bid of Jacques Anouma as a candidate for the role. Ivory Coast’s Jacques Anouma is to run for the Confederation of African Football (Caf) presidency next March – seven years after his first attempt – after receiving the nomination of his federation for the role.
“FIF has decided to give its backing to Jacques Anouma for the Caf presidential election of March 2021,” FIF said of the 68-year-old. “FIF wishes Anouma full success in this election.”
Motsepe has now joined in on the race with a press conference between South African Football Federation (SAFA) president Danny Jordaan and South African Sports Minister Nathi Mthethwa set to confirm his candidacy.
Ahmad confirmed that he will seek re-election but the highly publicised PWC Audit exposing the financial irregularities at CAF has thrown the race wide open for Anouma, and now Motsepe.
Should the mining magnate win the election, he would need to step down in his role as president of the 2019/20 PSL treble winners.
The CAF presidential elections will take place during their Elective General Assembly in Rabat, Morocco scheduled for March 2021.
Lemecha’s one-year journey from unknown to global medalist
Couple of years before few people in the athletics world had heard of Lemecha Girma.
Lemecha had joined the Tirunesh Dibaba Athletics Club a year or two earlier and was training for the 1500m, but club coach Kefyalew Alemu noticed Lemecha’s height and long stride and suggested he might be good at the steeplechase.
His 8:46.23 run at the Ethiopian U20 Championships was respectable but unremarkable. Getnet Wale and Takele Negate, who finished first and second in that race in 8:35.01 and 8:35.53 respectively, went on to represent Ethiopia at the World U20 Championships in Tampere later that year and both made it on to the podium. Negate took the gold medal, ending a Kenyan winning streak that dated back to the first edition of the World U20 Championships, while Wale earned bronze.
After decades of Kenyan steeplechase dominance, Ethiopian runners were finally starting to make an impact in the steeplechase. But still, no one knew of Lemecha Girma. Lemecha moved to the Youth Sport Academy in Addis Ababa to be coached by Teshome Kebede, the national coach for the steeplechase, and to train alongside Wale and a couple of other promising middle-distance runners.
International debut
Lemecha’s first appearance in an overseas invitational came in the Diamond League meeting in Paris, where he was up against a field of global medalists, including world and Olympic champion Conseslus Kipruto.
If Lemecha was nervous, he did a good job of hiding it. After staying in third or fourth place for most of the first half of the race, he moved into the lead once the pacemaker dropped out at 2000m. The top contenders moved past Lemecha as the bell sounded for the final lap, but Lemecha wasn’t finished and briefly regained the lead with 200 meters to go.
He was eventually out-kicked by Soufiane El Bakkali and Benjamin Kigen in the closing stages, but Lemecha’s third-place finish in 8:08.63 was a noteworthy Diamond League debut and showed that his Hengelo performance wasn’t a fluke.
Two weeks later at the Diamond League final in Brussels, Lemecha again placed third, this time in a PB of 8:07.66 and finishing even closer to the winner. It was a confidence-boosting performance ahead of the World Championships.
Silver lining
Despite his promising results in Paris and Brussels, Lemecha tried to keep his expectations low in Doha.
“It was my first race at the World Championships, so I didn’t know what to expect,” he says. “I had trained hard for a good result, but I didn’t expect to win.”
He passed his first test with flying colors, winning his heat in 8:16.64. He may have been a novice, and a promising one at that, but Lemecha knew that the final would be the toughest challenge of his young career.
Kipruto, who had missed most of the season through injury, was rounding into form at the right time. A formidable championship performer with vast experience, the Kenyan was desperate to retain his title. 14 other men in the field would be vying for medals too.
Lemecha’s teammate Chala Beyo was the early leader before Wale, Lemecha’s training partner, took up the running and led the field through 1000m in a swift 2:39.55. Lemecha then took up the pace and led through 2000m in 5:22.95 with Wale, Kipruto, Abraham Kibiwot and El Bakkali for company, all of them looking comfortable.
El Bakkali moved into the lead at the bell, but Lemecha kicked to the front with 200 meters remaining. Kipruto then moved past the Moroccan into second place and in pursuit of Lemecha. The two men flew over the final barrier with Lemecha still managing to hold a slight advantage over the Olympic champion, but Kipruto was gaining on the young Ethiopian with every step.
They crossed the line almost in unison, both unsure of the outcome as they waited nervously for the times to come up on the screen. Finally it was confirmed: Kipruto had successfully defended his title in 8:01.35. In the closest ever finish in the steeplechase at the World Championships; Lemecha took the silver medal in a senior Ethiopian record of 8:01.36.
Known quantity
Now a world silver medalist, Lemecha is no longer an underdog.
He was shortlisted for the Rising Star award at last year’s World Athletics Awards in Monaco, an honor that compatriot Selemon Barega won. But Lemecha went on to win the Young Athlete of the Year award from the Confederation of African Athletics. He finished second at the Campaccio cross-country meeting in Italy last month, his first international cross-country race, beating world 5km record-holder Robert Keter.
And while the rising standards of Ethiopian steeple chasing means no place on the national team is secure until after the trials, Lemecha hopes to book his place on the team for the Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games where he will aim to become the first Ethiopian athlete to win an Olympic steeplechase title.
“Now I am going to work very hard to be stronger and to try to win an Olympic gold for my country.”
The Shepherd Became A Surgeon
A book entitled ‘The Shepherd Became A Surgeon’ by Professor Mitiku Belachew was released on Thursday November 12. The book which is translated from the original French version focuses on the life history of the professor who managed to become a world renowned Doctor from being a shepherd in small village. Born in Wenchi western Shewa he grew up as a herder and worked on his family farm till he was 12 years old.
Known around the world as ‘Lord of the Ring’, for inventing laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding to treat morbid obesity, the professor and surgeon has lived a life that inspires to rise above their circumstances. Born into a family of 9 in a rural area where there were no schools, he tended to cows and goats from the time he was a small child. Then, when he turned 12 he heard about a school far away. He went there and made the most of the
opportunity, graduating just 7 years later. This initiative and drive became a trademark of his life as he learned French to study at a Belgium university when there was not a medical school here and invented a way to save the lives of those who were grossly overweight. Whenever there was an obstacle he overcame it. Now he has brought tools and experience with him to Ethiopia where he is working to train the next generation and inspire others to say no to limitations and use their talents to enrich the lives of others. His inspiring story was published as a book.
“It is an autobiography. I wrote it two years ago. It mainly focuses on how I went from being a herder in very small rural city to a surgical doctor travelling all over the world. It’s written in French but now it’s translated to English. It’s a popular book with French speaking people” Mitiku said. “It is also translated into Amharic too with a title ‘Eregnaw Hakim’. I hope it will reach more people and inspire and motivate them,” he added.
