Jackson Mayanja or Philip Omondi? Who was the best- Aldrine Nsubuga gives verdict
February 14, 2023
Talk about Ugandan football and the names of Jackson Mayanja and Philip Omondi will always come up.
Let’s start with Philip Omondi. He was born in 1957 in Tororo.
He started his career in 1970 playing for Naguru Youth.
Omondi went ahead to play for KCCA for 6 years from 1973-79.
He made a name for himself playing for the Kasasiro boys scoring lots of goals.
Omondi is regarded as the greatest player to ever adorn the Kasasiro boys jersey.
It’s no wonder their stadium is named after him.
Omondi later departed KCCA to the UAE and played for Sharjah where he spent 4 years from 79-83.
He then returned to KCC and played for a further 4 years before retiring in 1987.
Omondi also amongst other greats led the national team the Cranes to glory.
They played the 1978 AFCON final losing to Ghana by 2-0.
He won that tournament’s golden boot with 4 goals.
He’s widely regarded by many as Uganda’s greatest footballer of all time.
Unfortunately he passed away in 1999 aged 42.
Jackson Mayanja
Nickmaed Mia Mia, there isn’t an attacking midfielder that comes close to the prowess of Jackson Mayanja.
He played for teams like Police FC, Jinja, El Masry in Egypt and Esperance in Tunisia.
It is however at KCCA that he made name for himself.
Just like Omondi he played for the Lugogo based side over two stints.
Mayanja achieved a lot of success with KCCA and he comfortably sits in the top 5 players to ever play for the club.
He wasn’t short of being brilliant for the National team either.
However according to sports analyst Aldrine Nsubuga, Mayanja is better than Omondi.
To him, there is nothing that Omondi could do which Mayanja couldn’t.
Besides there are things that Mayanja could do which Omondi couldn’t.
“Everything that Phillip Omondi did, Jackson Mayanja did. Phillip Omondi couldn’t do some things Jackson Mayanja did.”
Nsubuga also mentioned his all time Ugandan best 11.
“Paul Sali, Paul Hasule,Richard Mugalu,Tom Lwanga, Jimmy Kirunda, Moses Ndaula, Ronald Lubya , Jackson Mayanja,Majid Musisi,Phillip Omondi, Godfrey Katerega.’