Uuezeua, Hikuam stay put till 2020
By Michael Uugwanga
THE Brave Gladiators pair of Beverly Uuezeua and Millicent Hikuam, who were set to leave Namibia this year to play football in Taiwan and in the United States of America, respectively, are still in the country due to permit and re-testing.
Uuezeua plays for Galz and Goals football club in the Namibia Football Association (NFA) Skorpion Zinc Women Super League, while Hikuam turns out for Tura Magic Ladies, also in the Super League.
Uuezeua, who is the captain for her side, has developed into one of the country’s top female footballers and at 19 years has lots of football ahead of her and was set to join Fu Jen Catholic University on 28 April.
Hikuam (21), an exciting midfielder, was set to fly to the USA to join another Namibian female footballer Annouscka Kordom at Corbon University in Salem, Oregon for further studies.
Uuzeua, a Grade 10 learner at Ella Du Plessis Secondary School in Windhoek currently lives at the NFA Girls Center that also accommodates female footballers who have no relatives in Windhoek.
In 2016 she was on the verge of quitting football after a request from her family to go and live on a farm before she was convinced by her former junior national team coach Mervin Mbakera to continue playing football.
In an interview with Confidente, NFA head of women’s football Jacky Gertze said the reason why Uuezeua remained in Namibia was because her papers (work permit) were submitted late, but she would leave for the Asian country next year.
“Beverly (Uuezeua) was waiting for her permit which came late. Beverly signed a professional contract like Zenatha Coleman did with Valencia in Spain. She will only go in March next year,” said Gertze.
On Hikuam, Gertze said the player was not going to play professional football in the USA but to play college football, just like Kordom.
She said Hikuam stayed behind because she did not meet the required entry test requirements.
“Millicent’s story is totally different as she was going to the USA to join Kordom. She was going for studies and not to play professional football. Millicent did not get the required 70 percent for her test. She has to do the re-test because hers is a scholarship and to play. She therefore missed the first academic semester, but will go next year once she passes the test,” Gertze said.
Hikuam said she is still determined to go to the USA to play college football and can hardly wait for 2020 to come. “Maybe I will be leaving in January next year. I just hope that everything will go well for me next year. I’m supposed to go and study sport management at the same university that Kordom is at.”