London non-league goalie chosen as heir to Ugandan kingdom

A non-league footballer who “revs up teammates with F-bombs in a thick London accent” has become the “unlikely successor to the throne of a traditional kingdom in Uganda”, said The Times.

George Desmond Kamurasi, captain and goalkeeper of SE Dons in Bexleyheath, southeast London, is a first cousin of the Tooro region’s late king and a grandson of King George David Matthew Kamurasi Rukidi III, who ruled between 1928 and 1965.

Prison breakthrough

The royal succession committee of the Tooro kingdom selected Kamurasi following the death of King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV, who had occupied the Tooro throne since 1995 after succeeding his father at the age of three.

Oyo’s death prompted an “outpouring of grief” across Tooro and Uganda, said UG Diplomat. The nation’s president, Yoweri Museveni, described him as a “good person and a good leader,” whose death was “a great loss to the people of Tooro and Uganda”.

In contrast to Oyo, Kamurasi has spent most of his adulthood in Britain, “building a life largely outside Uganda’s royal spotlight”, said Pulse.

He has spoken of a “difficult adolescence” – his mother died when he was 14, leaving him “vulnerable to bad influences”, and he has remembered being “angry” and making poor decisions. “I got into the wrong circle and ended up in jail.”

But then “I realised that everything I had done was my fault” and “I took responsibility”.

After serving his jail sentence, football “became his route to rebuilding his life”. Kamurasi once played in Barcelona, where he was watched by Pep Guardiola, and in England he played lower-league and grassroots football for clubs including Ashford United.

Videos from his coaching sessions “portray an intense and motivational figure” who speaks about “discipline, responsibility and the need to recover from failure”.

Strong mobiliser

The royal succession committee selected Kamurasi last week, with 15 of the 18 members present voting for him, and a formal proclamation is expected after Oyo’s burial this weekend.

He’s “said to be reluctant to swap his goalkeeping gloves for the crown”, said The Times. The Spy in Uganda quoted unnamed sources “close to the unfolding succession process” claiming that Kamurasi doesn’t wish to leave London and inherit the kingdom.

But if the succession committee’s decision is officially confirmed and he accepts the role, the “qualities” he preached on the football pitch, such as “discipline, resilience, accountability and hunger for success” will then be “tested on a much bigger stage”, said Pulse.

Opinion on social media is divided over the prospect of the 6ft 6in footballer returning as monarch. He “looks like a strong mobiliser, no nonsense, aggressive”, said Ugandan author Cynthia Natkoto on X. “For the people of Tooro, that’s a good thing.”

But another X user described the prospect as “a crazy turn of events” and some have wondered how the kingdom would take to a king who is married to a “mzungu”, in his case a white British woman.