England-based Falone Sumaili is itching to make her maiden debut at the TotalEnergies Women’s Africa Cup of Nations when the tournament’s first whistle sounds in Morocco on July 2, with the Eastern Africans having qualified for the first time in their history.
Sumaili who moved to the United Kingdom a little over four years ago at the height of the Burundi civil war was part of Burundi’s qualification journey and now looks forward to making an even bigger impact at the tournament in Morocco.
The whole country was happy and even in the streets you could see it.
Falone Sumaili, about their WAFCON qualification
“It was a massive thing for us. Not just as players and coaches but the whole country as well. In 2019 our men’s team qualified for the Cup of Nations for the first time and now three years later, the women also qualified. This is a huge boost for women’s football in our land,” Sumaili told CAF Online.
She added; “The whole country was happy and even in the streets you could see it.”
Burundi qualified for their maiden tournament after thrashing Djibouti 11-1 on aggregate in the final qualification round with Sumaili playing both legs.
The Huddersfield Women player has also been a part of the team that just finished second at the CECAFA Women’s Championship where they lost 3-1 to Uganda in the final.
She believes that the tournament, in which she scored once, gave them a good opportunity to prepare themselves.
“These matches were important for us to see where and how we are as a team and know where to improve and work harder. It was tough but we are glad with what we gave. Now we are going into the final phase of preparations and we want to do better when we get to the tournament,” she said.
For the tournament, Burundi are drawn into a tough Pool C that has record champions and title holders Nigeria, South Africa who reached the last final in 2018 and Botswana.
Though they look dwarfed in this group, Burundi will be out to show their mettle and Sumaili says they will step up to their best.
“We will not be too ambitious and say we are going to win all our matches. This is our first time and the first ambition is to go out there and learn as well as do our best. We know we will face very tough teams who are way more experienced than us but we will be there to show that Burundi is coming up well in women’s football,” said the forward.
She hopes to replicate her form from the United Kingdom where she was the top scorer for the Huddersfield Women’s U23 team and also struck five times when called upon to the senior team.
Source: CAF