Danito Nsubuga
En route Turkey , from Nairobi after representing Uganda against Kenya in an international match, former Cranes midfielder Hassan Wasswa Mawanda met a moment he terms as the worst in his footballing career.
A then teammate at Turkish club Kademir Celik Karabukspor he met at the Airport in Instanbul handed him a luggage which was intercepted at Ataturk Airport.
Wasswa wasn’t aware that the bag had two sticks of Marijuana which the airport staff found suspicious and put him under custody for 5 days.
“I think my worst day in football came in 2011 when playing on loan at Kayseri Erciyesspor in Turkey”.
Wasswa told Spark TV in an exclusive interview.
“My friend a Nigerian teammate gave me his luggage asked I help him deliver it, that he would find me with it after he had finished some assignments in Instanbul “.
“Scans found two sticks of Marijuana and a match box and asked me to hand them over, I wasn’t surprised at first well aware that I was innocent and have never used any drugs in my life”.
“Within in 5 minutes, I had been surrounded by security officials and I was put under arrest”.
” I called the Nigerian explaining to him about my ordeal and promised to call back and clear things up, when I called him later, he had switched the fones off and fled Turkey in fear of what would be fall next “
He added.
Reports back home and allover Turkey started making rounds that Ugandan international Hassan Wasswa had been arrested in possession of 5.5 grams of cannabis in his socks.
Luckily Wasswa was later exonerated after a blood examination report came out clean that Wasswa had never used any drugs.
His stay in Turkey was however cut short after his club fined him for 10,000 Euros per month off his salary yet he was only earning 7,000 Euros to which the player objected.
He opted to terminate his contract with them and was compensated with 25,000 Euros and returned to Kampala for a restart.
The utility player represented Uganda on 75 occasions and played at 2 AFCONs in 2017 Gabon and Egypt 2019.
During his prestigious career, Wasswa played for KCCA FC twice and SC Villa locally. Over seas, he played for South Africa’s FC Cape town, Dong Nai in Vietnam, Al Shorta in Iraq, Nejmeh Sporting club in Lebanon, Jeddah Club in Saudi Arabia, Karabukspor in Turkey, Kayseri among others.
He hung his boots up from international duty on April 9th 2021.