Speaking with Martin Mutumba - PART 1

He used to first go in goal and try his luck as a goalkeeper and the young player spent a few months and he found his way into the side, with some of his friends. Some  of his knowledge came from the third division side Vasalund. However, he was not to end up as a keeper thanks to the famous Brazilian, Ronaldo. Martin takes up the story... "After I saw him play, I realised that it would be boring to become a goalkeeper. I decided that I would break out of goal, and in one of the training sessions, I tried to convince the coach just how well I could dribble. It did not do the trick and I was back in goal again. I did not relax and I finally managed to reach the point, where I was in midfield."

He was 13-years-old when AIK discovered him, and they signed him up straight away. Martin's career quickly went upwards, and a few months later, he was playing among the older players. He finally made it to the first team squad at the young age of 16. His debut came in the Swedish first division match against Kalmar FF, in the autumn of 2002. It was a big breakthrough, but not only for him, but his family too. There were 7 children in the Kayongo-Mutumba family. Martin was the fifth child, with two other brothers and sisters. He also has another sister and brother. The youngest Mutumba also plays football as a defender, for a second division side. "My parents both believed and didn't believe that you could make a living from playing football", explained Martin. "They then saw that things were getting better and there was good money to be made from it, and they became even more proud of me. Many boys play football in Rinkeby, but there were very few examples of them managing to make the necessary step up. Zlatan Ibrahimovics was another to come from an immigrant family, and so they have nice dreams of breaking out of the world of immigrants.

As I mentioned earlier, we were poor. There were also times when I went away to play in a tournament for a few days, with my parents only being able to give me bread. When I was young, everyone went to training by car and then they were taken out to eat. I played with the boys, once I came back home and ate after. If there was any.... Things changed as success began to come from me playing football. My parents attitude changed and they began to take more attention to make sure that I ate properly. I had to relax more and they told me many times, not to go out to play football with my friends, incase any problems might happen. And that is just what happened...." 

Before we return to that, lets talk a little about Martin's time at school. "I lost interest after year six. With a bit of exaggeration, I only used to go to school to get money for showing some football tricks. I would show them a trick and would then bet that the others could not do it. Of course they did not manage to do it. So I used the money I received to by kebabs, hamburgers and pizza's. These were the happiest moments of my school life," explained the player. School also involved football naturally. Martin's side always won whether it was three against three or four against four.