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After standing out for Kenya women’s football team Harambee Starlets, goalkeeper Annedy Kundu, and her teammate Ruth Ingotsi caught the eyes of talent scouts, and got signed up by Lakatamia Football Club in Cyprus early this year.
The team, which features in the Cypriot women’s Division One League, has been in existence since 1998.
The two upcoming footballers - who turned out for Eldoret Falcons in the Kenya Women’s Premier League - were excited to try something new in their lives.
Packing their bags, they left Kenya in January to pursue football careers in a foreign country, but the coronavirus pandemic has now forced them to suddenly stop doing what they love best - playing football.
Luckily, they have each other for company.
Kundu, from Shilongo in Malava, Kakamega County, caught the attention of scouts during the Cecafa Women’s Championship held in Tanzania last year.
The goalkeeper made daring saves that helped the team clinch the title. For her exploits, Kundu bagged the Golden Glove Award in the tournament.
Talking to Nation Sport on phone from her base in Cyprus, Kundu said she has had a difficult time mentally adjusting to the fact that she can’t play football and prove her worth for her new team just after a few months at the club. Like her teammates, she has been forced to remain indoors and to train on her own due to the Covid-19 which has halted all sports activities globally.
“I was so much excited when we got here to start a new journey, and meeting different people who are friendly was something that gave me hope in this phase of my career,” Kundu.
One of her biggest challenges, she says, is dealing with boredom which is now creeping in because players have to maintain social distance. That has forced most members of the team to remain in their rooms.
“Staying indoors is really boring. I miss training so much. I hope this pandemic will end soon so that we can get back to our normal lives,” she added.
The Cypriot women’s Division One League was meant to end in May, allowing players time to travel back to their countries to spend time with their families but that now seems uncertain.
The players have been forced to play a waiting game, and no one knows when the waiting will end.
“We were expecting to come back home at the end of the season, but we are now in the dark because we don’t know what will happen next,” said Kundu, who is a younger sister of Malkia Strikers libero Agrippina Kundu.
Kundu says she is taking safety precautions and is not deterred by the threat of the deadly virus but her goal remains to be one of the best goalkeeper in the world.
“My aim is to be one of the best players. I want to do my best at the club so that I can build my career. I have to start small and my target is to become one of the most sought of goalkeepers in the world. With hard work, I will make it to the top,” she added.
For her part, Ingotsi said she was happy to meet her new teammates who made them feel at home. As with most players working in a new country, she struggled to adjust to the weather but the best part of her Cypriot adventure, she says, is availability of good training facilities.
“I enjoy training here, and it is exciting playing in a different environment from what I was used to back at home. Training facilities here are good but we no longer train since the league has been put on hold,” Ingotsi said from her base in Lakatamia in the capital Nicosia.
She doesn’t regret joining the club, saying that it has the potential of changing her life completely.
“I want to work hard and use the opportunity to improve my playing techniques and eventually join one of the leading women’s football clubs in the world,” she said.
Both Kundu and Ingotsi joined their new club from Eldoret Falcons where they had been playing since 2018.
