School Football: Who is Kitakule “OZIL” The Brain Behind St Mathias Kalemba Visible Success

Much as they lost 4-2 on penalties against Mukono Kings High School after a goalless draw in the USSSA Greater Mukono Region boys football qualifiers final, St Kalemba have achieved much in this year’s competition.

First, the school has broken a 36 year jinx of never having featured at the national championship and more to that, played 14 games, won 11 and lost just 3. Their head coach believes they can go all the way but who is this brain behind these exploits?.

Kitakule Isaac, the young achiever who goes by the name Coach Ozil is a 29 year old soft spoken tactician, born in Bugembe (Jinja city) though his parents originate from Magada Kasaale in Namutumba district.

Kitakule the second born of in three but lost his parents at age of 8 and was brought up by his uncle Mukisa Fred.

He went to Mwiri primary school from P1 to P7, joined St Florence briefly before completing UCE at Najja Mary’s high school. He then sat UACE at Jinja SS though he had short stints at Rehaboth high school and St Monica at A level. He is currently pursuing a diploma in business administration/accounting at Makerere business school.

Kitakule started his football managerial career way back in 2012 at a local academy, Cheetahs soccer academy before moving to Namutumba to take charge of the famous giants, Agape SS in 2017.

Kitakule is most remembered for leading Agape to third position in the 2018 Copa Coca-Cola national competitions held in Mbarara.

Agape played to a goalless stalemate in normal time before losing to Buddo SS 4-3 on penalties. They were after going to beat Jinja SS 1-0 to scoop the third place.
In 2019, Coach Ozil still led Agape to the Busoga regional tournament where they were knocked out by Jinja progressive academy (JIPRA) at quarter finals.

While at cheetahs, Coach Ozil played two finals against Good News in the Bugembe youth cup, losing one and winning the other in 2017 and 2019 respectively. He was also briefly at Good News FC as assistant coach before joining St Kalemba in 2022

Ozil’s philosophy is based on the principles of possession, pressing, positional play, and attacking football. However, he is not rigid in his application of these principles. He is flexible and creative in finding solutions to different problems that arise during a game.

He regards former KCCA gaffer Mike Mutebi his role model.

Kitakule has an eye for upcoming talents with the likes of Musa Ssaali (now at Vipers SC), Owen Mukisa (BUL FC ), Wako Ivan (Mbale heroes) and Sanoni Mulabi having directly passed through his hands before having breakthroughs.

PLAYING CAREER
He has featured as a midfielder for Jinja fourth division clubs Central tiger and FC ten in 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 seasons respectively. He then joined another fourth division side agape SS in 2015 and helped them qualify for the regional league before his playing career being halted by two major knee injuries.

He was later featured for Luuka in the 4th edition of the Busoga Masaza cup a decision he says was to just enjoy the beautiful game and shortly after he went back to coaching.