Jamus FC coach, Andrea Casa Mbongo. (Photo: (Courtesy/SSMEDIA)

Jamus FC Head Coach Andrea Casa Mbongo who triumphed to a 2-1 South Sudan Super Cup Final victory on Saturday, is calling for unified efforts to advance football in South Sudan.

Addressing a press conference, Mbongo urged collaboration among stakeholders including football associations, coaches, referees, administrators, players, and the media to to transform South Sudanese football from amateur to professional level.

He emphasized the importance of adhering to training schedules, proper nutrition, rest, recovery, and time management as key aspects of development.

The Rwandan coach stressed that developing football is a collective responsibility and not just the task of coaches alone.

“The work is not only for us as coaches. It is a collective effort whereby even the media plays a part in making sure that not only the Jamus but even maybe all the teams in South Sudan raise the game,” he said.

“When we are with these players we talk to them, we need to make them understand that this game is professional they are professionals too. They need to know how they handle themselves.”

“It is just a matter of changing the mentality and trying to do the right things in terms of how you feed, rest, recover and other things. The media, the coaches and the federation need to try and do research and make sure that we teach our players.”

Mbongo highlighted that the country’s past conflicts have slowed progress in sports, but now is the time to move forward. He also called on the football union to conduct more research to find the best ways to improve the sport.

He further stated that one of the most important factors hindering the development of football in South Sudan is timekeeping.

“If you want to improve the standard of the game, we have to prove it all of us. We don’t need to waste time again. We need to try and catch up with other nations in football.”

Andrea Casa Mbongo took charge of Jamus two months ago after the team was promoted to the first-division league in Juba.

Despite an initial setback in the preliminary round of the Confederation Championship, where they lost 5-0 to Tunisian opponents, Mbongo rallied his team to win the Juba Local Super Cup and the South Sudan Super Cup in one month.