All time Ethiopian Women football greatest player Loza Aberra won Malta’s most prestigious Women Player of The Year award on Wednesday.
Arguably the most decorated Ethiopian Women player who boasts four local women’s league championship title, three time top scorer of a year and once Best Player of the Year award winner Loza Aberra crowned Women Best Player of 2020 in her very first season in Maltese League.
The first Ethiopian women footballer to sign a professional foreign deal, the 22 year-old striker turned an overnight Maltese Football starlet leading the Maltese giant Birkirkara to Women’s League championship scoring 30 goals in just fourteen matches. An average of 2.11 goals in every match she even once performed a miracle bagging seven goals in her team’s 17-0 demolition of Hibernians to record their biggest victory ever in the Malese Women’s League.
It was a rapid rise from Women’s League football to international arena for the young dreamer from South of Ethiopia Durame town. Two seasons with her first team Hawasa Ketema followed by a giant leap to strong side Dedebit where she won three championship titles in four seasons, Losa travelled to Turkey then to Sweden for trial matches before returning home to help Adama Ketema lift the championship title for the first time.
Six and a half seasons and more than 200 goals in her name at club level and another 25 goals to the national team “Lucy”, Loza reached Malta to perform a miracle at Birkirkara.
“A move to England would be a dream come true. I recently started to follow the Women’s Super League closely. I am shaping myself to the standard of the league and I believe I can perform well there” Loza who idolized five times world Women Player of the Year Brazilian Marta told reporters.
Ethiopian Loza named Maltese League Player of the Year
“I believe I can beat Eluid Kipchoge” Kenenisa on World Marathon Record
Ethiopia’s three-time Olympic and five-time world champion Kenenisa Bekele is one of the African continent’s finest athletes but he still wants to seal his golden legacy by becoming the fastest marathon runner of all time. The much anticipated race takes place in St James Park on October 4th.
He holds world records in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters and came within a whisker of posting another one last September at the Berlin marathon in one of the sport’s greatest comebacks.
In a gutsy race, Bekele came from behind to win but fell two seconds short of his rival Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge’s world record of two hours, one minute and 39 seconds.
“I still can do this (world record). I don’t give up. It is encouraging for the future,” Bekele said at the time.
The mouth-watering prospect of another crack at the world mark could have come last April at the London marathon, where he would have competed against Kipchoge.
However, that race fell victim to the novel coronavirus pandemic and has been rescheduled to Oct. 4. It is far from certain if it will take place, in what form and whether the two superstars will be on the start line if it does.
The 38-year old Bekele is one of the most dominant distance runners in the sport. He boasts three Olympic and five world championship golds over 10,000 and 5,000 meters not to mention a stunning 11 cross-country world championship golds.
His switch to road races in 2014 began with a bang as he won in Paris on his marathon debut, breaking the course record.
But he was then hit by injuries and it seemed like his best days were over before his marathon success in Berlin last year.
The second of six children, Bekele was born in Bekoji, in the central Ethiopian province of Arsi Province, a part of the country famous for producing great runners.
However, his life has not been without tragedy.
In 2005, while running with his 18-year-old fiancée Alem Techale on the outskirts of Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa, she fell ill and died soon after. “It’s a loss that will always stay with me,” Bekele told Reuters that year.
Two years later, he married Ethiopian actress Danawit Gebregziabher and they have three children.
While the coronavirus pandemic blocked the race that may have settled the debate over who is the best between him and Kipchoge, fans still hope to discover who will come out on top.
Bekele believes he can beat his great rival.
“He (Kipchoge) is human. If someone is well prepared and strong enough, why not? It’s a race,” he told the Olympic channel.
The hunting down Ethiopia’s long distance records
In less than a month, three different athletic world records which were previously held by Ethiopian athletes have been broken.
It all started in Monaco, France, during the diamond league meeting on August 14 when Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei smashed Ethiopian legend Kenenisa Bekele’s 500m world record that stood for 16 years.
It was a sensational run by the 23-year-old Ugandan who has been making all the headlines on the track in the recent past. Cheptegei registered a new world record by clocking 12:35:36 which is two seconds clear from the 16 years old Bekele’s record of 12:35:36.
Farah destroyed yet another record previously held by Ethiopian athletic legend Geberselasie by running 21:330km in an hour, breaking the previous 21.285km which the Ethiopian registered More than a decade ago. The 37-year-old Somalia born British athlete completed over 53 laps at an average pace of 67 seconds per lap.
If that was not enough, another Ethiopian athlete record was successfully hunted down on the same night in Brussels when Holland’s Sifan Hassan smashed the women’s one-hour run record by covering a total of 18 kilometers and 930 meters in an hour.
The previous world record for the one-hour run was held by Ethiopia’s Dire Tune who covered 18.517m which stood for 12 years. This result should raise eyebrows not only in Ethiopia but across the East African region signaling that things are not the same any more. The athletics long distance podium is no longer the sole preserve of athletes from the two East African athletics powerhouse nations of Kenya and Ethiopia.
Africa: CAF Women’s Champions League – Eight Teams to Participate in Opening Tournament
Ethiopian Women league defending champion Adama ketema need to win the 12 nations’ Council for East and Central African qualification campaign so that it could have a place in the first ever edition of African Women Champions League that takes place in 2021.
The decision was made public during the CAF Executive Committee that took place on Thursday, September 10, 2020.
It has been decided that the first edition of the African Women’s Champions League will take place in 2021. The decision was made public during the Executive Committee of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) that took place on Thursday September 10, 2020 amongst a host of items including the body’s next Presidential election.
According to the conclusions there will be eight finalists for the inaugural edition. Six CAF zones across the continent will organize qualifications to determine the eight finalists for the inaugural CAF Women’s Champions League. The first edition of the CAF Women’s Champions League will see the zonal union of the host country have two representatives, but the following editions will see host countries with one representative while the reigning Champion’s Zone Union will have two representatives.
Council for East and Central Africa Football Association (CECAFA) (12)
Burundi, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania, Zanzibar.
Union of North African Football Federations (UNAF) (5)
Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia
West African Football Union (WAFU) (16)
Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo.
Central African Football Federations’ Union (UNIFFAC) (8)
Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sao Tome and Principe, Chad.
Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA) (14)
South Africa, Angola, Botswana, Comoros, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius Island, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, Eswatini, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
Indian Ocean Football Federation (UFFOI) (6)
Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mayotte, Réunion Islands, Seychelles
