Africa History

South Africa

Ambassadors Football first brought a touring team of professionals to play in South Africa in 1999. The team visited Cape Town, Johannesburg, and then went on to Harare, Zimbabwe.

This is where Ambassadors Football first realized that the potential to serve churches through football in Africa was very high. Having realized this, a second team toured South Africa the following year. This second tour saw many lives touched by the message of the Gospel. It was then that local Christian communities requested that Ambassadors Football consider opening a full-time ministry in Cape Town. In April 2001, this dream became a reality.

The office in Nigeria was next. This work in Lagos was established in 2004 under the leadership of Peter Ottache.

Nigeria

Ambassadors Football Zambia was formed in 2005 under the leadership of Daliso Mwale after serving as an intern in South Africa. Soon after being established, a team from England and Italy visited Zambia. The touring team played goodwill matches with a number of teams and ran exciting youth football camps within Lusaka Province. The gospel was shared in a fun and interactive manner. Daliso now has six division academies and has connected the ministry to the local church.

The Kenya office was established and registered as an NGO in 2007 under Justine Birichi following his internship in South Africa and in partnership with International Christian Centre in Nairobi. Since then, Ambassadors Football Kenya has been committed to communicating the Good News of Jesus to all people through football through coaching courses, clubs, camps for youth, the Ambassadors Football Training Centre, and Community Outreach. Ambassadors Football Kenya currently has 10 staff members and 3 interns.

Mozambique became part of the Africa vision in 2003. An international tour called “Golo de Ouro” was formed and visited the country to begin the assessing the ministry opportunity there. Daniel Moiana began his journey as the Country Director in 2006 being trained and interning in South Africa with Ambassadors Football. Daniel returned to Mozambique in 2007 and started the official work of Ambassadors Football. In 2010, the ministry was fully registered by the government of Mozambique.

Mozambique

Ambassadors Football was established in Congo in 2016 after a tour of professional players came alongside the work being established by Rob Cuthbert. Rob eventually transitioned the work to Martial who leads the ministry today.

The Ambassadors Football work in Rwanda started in 2017. Growing out of a partnership with the Pentecostal church of Rwanda, ADEPR, one of the largest denominations in the country, the church was cautiously apprehensive of using sport at first. However, through this partnership, a countrywide youth football tournament took place where many children surrendered their lives to Jesus. This proof of the ministry model has firmly established the work there and it continues to grow, reaching thousands of Rwandan youth.