The first Ugandan footballer to sign for a European club. It doesn’t get better than that, does it? Majid Musisi nurtured his football career at the renowned Mulago playground, popularly known as ‘Maracana’ in reference to the famous Brazilian stadium.
Stocky, powerful and endowed with speed, Musisi rapidly stood out among his peers so much that in 1983 – at just 16 years – second-tier side Pepsi FC signed him up. He later abandoned studies to focus on football. SC Villa’s David Otti noticed Majid and quickly signed him up.
Majid’s breakthrough came in August 1985. Villa versus Express. With thousands of fans still forcing their way to enter Nakivubo stadium, Majid Musisi, scored two quick goals in the first four minutes to give SC Villa a 2–0 win over Express.
By 1987, the goals were pouring in. That season, playing in his favored central role, he scored eight times in the first six league games. He was later handed a national debut as a 20-year-old in July 1987 in a qualifier against Mozambique.
Alongside Phillip Omondi, Majid tore Mozambique apart scoring a brace. Later that year, Majid defied a Fufa directive and played for the Lugave clan in the Bika By’Abaganda football championship a few days before the crucial Olympic qualifier against Zambia. The federation suspended him but due to the public outcry, FUFA recalled him.
In 1992, Majid Musisi was on track to make light work of Jimmy Kirunda’s record of 32 goals a season when he netted a mindboggling 29 goals in the league’s first round. In his final league appearance, he tormented KCC goalie Sadiq Wassa to the extent that when he scored his fourth in the 5–0 win, he simply walked off the field as if to suggest that domestic opposition no longer matched his ambitions. Nevertheless, he extended his league tally to 144 goals.
It was a blessing in disguise when French side Stade Rennes signed the player for a whopping $180,000. Villa used part of that money to buy the Makindye-Luwafu club house.
Majid Musisi can best be described as an orthodox forward, one who makes scoring look easy. He was a natural finisher who got the best out of his physical presence. He was also a deadball specialist. On the other hand, he was a tireless workhorse with exceptional firepower; added to pace, good dribbling skills and a great aerial presence, he was the most difficult striker to mark.
At Rennes, Majid Musisi was a regular presence and scored a number of crucial goals. After spending two seasons with the Rennes in France where he played a total of 64 matches scoring 18 goals (League 2 and Coupe de France), he was sold to the Turkish top-flight club Bursaspor and later to Çanakkale Dardanelspor[8] for 1.8 billion Ugandan shillings transfer fee ($1 million), making a record in the transfer market for the most expensive Uganda import. In the 1996 season, he was voted Best Foreign Player of the Year in the Turkish league.
Majid Musisi returned to Uganda in 2001 and rejoined SC Villa. However, it was clear he was over the hill and failed to show the predatory skills of the past. He remained a key player for Uganda, captaining the side on several occasions and the highlight was a hat-trick in 1998 in the 5–0 win over Rwanda. However, he unceremoniously ended his Cranes career when Harrison Okagbue, the then coach threw him out of camp for breaching the team’s code of conduct in 2000.
In 2002, he joined Vietnamese side Da Nang but returned in 2004 and joined Ggaba United. There, he failed to get off the mark and called it a day.
Ugandan History. 