{"id":56657,"date":"2025-12-26T17:55:04","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T17:55:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/president-kagame-infantino-spread-christmas-cheer-to-children-at-fifa-football\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T22:17:36","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T22:17:36","slug":"president-kagame-infantino-spread-christmas-cheer-to-children-at-fifa-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/president-kagame-infantino-spread-christmas-cheer-to-children-at-fifa-football\/","title":{"rendered":"President Kagame, Infantino spread Christmas cheer to children at FIFA Football Festival in Kigali"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The joyful event brought together children from 11 football academies across the country for a special holiday clinic. It included 100 girls aged 13 and under from five academies and 120 boys in the 11-, 13-, and 15-year-old age groups from six academies, accompanied by their coaches.<\/p>\n<p>Each child received a football through FIFA\u2019s Football for Schools programme, which was launched in Kigali in 2023 to support youth development via sport.<\/p>\n<p>President Kagame highlighted football\u2019s power to foster unity and peace, praising Infantino\u2019s efforts. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe uses football to bring people together for peace. Amahoro, like we are here, this stadium is called Amahoro Stadium, so this is the right place to use football to actually deliver peace. You know, we don\u2019t have enough peace in our region, but he has been using football to contribute to bringing peace to our region and beyond in other places,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>FIFA President Gianni Infantino commended the world-class infrastructure of Amahoro Stadium, suggesting it as an ideal venue for the FIFA Series matches scheduled in Kigali in March 2026. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am so happy to be here with you today in Kigali in this beautiful stadium. Congratulations President. Congratulations to Rwanda. This is a state of the art stadium. We will actually play the FIFA Series in March here in this very stadium\u2026And it will be absolutely beautiful,\u201d he remarked.<\/p>\n<p>Addressing the children, Infantino added, \u201cLet me say, dear children, how happy and proud I am to be here today because we celebrate Christmas. Merry Christmas to everyone. And of course, we celebrate you, the children of this beautiful country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Minister of Sports Nelly Mukazayire thanked FIFA for its continued support, pointing to the ongoing construction of four modern pitches in Gicumbi, Rusizi, Rutsiro, and at FERWAFA headquarters under the FIFA Forward programme. <\/p>\n<p>She noted that these facilities will aid training, unite communities through sport, and nurture young talent.<\/p>\n<p>Infantino announced further expansion, revealing plans to build 20 additional mini-pitches in schools nationwide.<\/p>\n<p>S\u00e9raphine Umunyana, a coach at the Paris Saint-Germain Academy, emphasised that the gifted footballs will significantly boost the children\u2019s skills, as consistent practice with a proper ball is key to developing talent.<\/p>\n<p>As part of the wider FIFA Football Festival initiative, around 5,000 footballs are expected to be distributed across Rwanda.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-99754\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/whatsapp_image_2025-12-26_at_1.54_07_pm_1_-d4ca8.jpg\" alt=\"Infantino interacting with participating children at the festival. \" \/><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-99755\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/whatsapp_image_2025-12-26_at_10.28_46_am-7830a.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-99756\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/whatsapp_image_2025-12-26_at_10.28_50_am-07438.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-99757\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/whatsapp_image_2025-12-26_at_11.53_57_am-41169.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-99758\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/whatsapp_image_2025-12-26_at_11.53_58_am-c1068.jpg\" alt=\"President Kagame and FIFA President Gianni Infantino spread Christmas cheer to children at FIFA Football Festival in Kigali\" \/><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-99759\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/whatsapp_image_2025-12-26_at_11.53_59_am-6c874.jpg\" alt=\"The joyful event brought together children from 11 football academies across the country for a special holiday clinic.\" \/><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-99760\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/whatsapp_image_2025-12-26_at_11.54_00_am_1_-8f09c.jpg\" alt=\"FIFA President Gianni Infantino commended the world-class infrastructure of Amahoro Stadium, suggesting it as an ideal venue for the FIFA Series matches scheduled in Kigali in March 2026. \" \/><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-99761\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/whatsapp_image_2025-12-26_at_11.54_01_am-e0d4d.jpg\" alt=\"President Kagame highlighted football\u2019s power to foster unity and peace, praising Infantino\u2019s efforts. \" \/><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-99762\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/whatsapp_image_2025-12-26_at_11.54_04_am_1_-09c85.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Paul Kagame, on December 26, 2025, joined FIFA President Gianni Infantino at the renovated Amahoro Stadium in Kigali to gift footballs to 220 young players during the FIFA Football Festival.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":2000099753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-56657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default 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