By John Kwoba
NAIROBI, Dec. 18 (Xinhua) -- War-torn Somalia is hopeful to use football in its national building process and their men and women team have made strides towards attaining the elusive unity the Horn of Africa country lacks.
Somalia's women football team staged a great performance in 2019 against Zimbabwe in the preliminary round of the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifier.
Zimbabwe won the encounter 3-2 on aggregate as one of 14 teams to reach the second round ending Somalia's hopes to reach the group stage of the World Cup qualifiers.
One man that led them through this crusade was Ghanaian coach Bashir Hayford, who believes he can tap into the massive football passion in Somalia to bring the people of the war-torn country together.
Bashir, a former coach of the Ghanaian national women's football team believes football has the power to unite a country and hopes the growth they have enjoyed over the last few months can be a catalyst for a long-lasting process.
"There is power in football and all over the world, football can bring peace and more so bring people together," Bashir told Africa football governing body CAF on Wednesday.
Bashir has been slowly building up a side that has brought a lot of joy to the people of Somalia.
Though Zimbabwe stopped their cruise, the message has since been written that with football, the war-tone country can momentarily forget their differences and pull together.
Somalia picked their first victory in 26 national team games when they beat the Zimbabwe Warriors 1-0 in Djibouti, but couldn't keep the dream going after losing 3-1 in the return leg clash.
Last week in Kampala, Somalia continued with its building process into the regional CECAFA Senior Challenge Cup where they have also shown their improvement, missing the semi-finals by a mere two points.
They won against Burundi, drew against Djibouti and Eritrea and lost to Uganda. The victory against Burundi was the first in the tournament in 11 years.
"We came here so that we can have more international matches to build the team. Our biggest problem is that we don't have many matches. You can find that we could stay for six or seven months without a game especially now that we are out of the qualifiers. If we can get more games, then we will definitely improve. That is why CECAFA is important to us," Bashir added.
Whenever the Somali national football team played, a sea of blue with mini Somali flags turned up in their droves to support their team.
They would mill around the team bus requesting for selfies with the players and most times, this would go on for almost 30 minutes.
For a long time, they could be happy to be linked to something positive with Somalia, their motherland.
It is this kind of love that Bashir hopes to use to try and bring the people together in a country that has been ravished by civil war.
The Ghanaian coach believes that football has the ability to bring change, peace and calm in the Indian Ocean country.
"Since I arrived in Somalia, I have not walked outside at night. I don't know how Somali nightlife is like. But I have realized that whenever there is football, people are always calm and happy. When we won against Zimbabwe, it was a festival. At this tournament, now that it is being screened live, people are always milling in shops and hotels to watch the games and support us. This shows that with football things can change," the Ghanaian said.
At the Senior Challenge Cup, which ends in Kampala on Sunday, Bashir had 14 players from abroad complementing the small quota of local-based players.
"The league in Somalia has not been very strong but it is now coming up. We decided to call these players so that they can share their experience with us. They agreed to come and hopefully, the results can be an inspiration to attract others," he said.
One of the players who was called up to the squad is defender Mohamud Ali who plays in the English sixth division with Curzon Ashton in Manchester. He was also part of the squad that played against Zimbabwe in the World Cup qualifier.
The Driving School instructor says he hopes the rise in Somali football will bring peace to the country.
"Definitely if we can bring more success on the football front, it will give something for the youth to look up to and to forget about troubles in the country. They can just focus on football and sports and bring love to the Somali people," Ali said.
"I am immensely proud to be playing for Somalia because this is the country of my birth. I am always ready to come and help my team and as long as I am playing football, I will always be ready to play for Somalia so that I can inspire the future generations to take up sports."
He further adds that the performance against Zimbabwe was a motivator for them that with hard work, they could actually match some of the big names in African football in the near future. His sentiments are echoed by Finland based Ahmed Said who skippered the team in Uganda.
"It is very amazing to come here and play for my national team. I love Somalia people and we have a very good team. We have trained together for only one week and we did well, If we can keep coming together, I know we can have a very good future and everything is possible," he noted.
After all, the biggest hope is to use football to bring stability to the Horn of Africa country.
