After playing for Rwanda and spending nine years in Europe, Jimmy returned home with a clear purpose: to help young players overcome the obstacles he faced himself, while developing the humility and resilience required to progress to the next phase of his career.
When Jimmy talks about developing young footballers, he does not begin with tactics or talent identification. Instead, he begins with character. For him, character and resilience are not separate from development. He believes they help players make better decisions and read the game more effectively with confidence and maturity. That perspective is rooted in his own journey as a player, where he learned the importance of being mentally strong and competitive, as well as constantly looking for ways to improve.
The former Rwanda international knows from experience how difficult the path can be. Raised by a single mother, Jimmy was once told that football could only take him so far. His mother wanted him to focus on his education, and he eventually stopped playing for almost two years. However, he did not give up on his ambition.
After completing his studies, Jimmy returned to football and was selected by one of Rwanda’s leading clubs. He won trophies, earned a place in the national team and later moved to Europe, where he played professionally in Belgium and Romania for nine years.
“Anyone in Africa will tell you his dream is to play in Europe,” Jimmy says. “I played in Europe for nine years, being able to live the best of my life as a professional.”
That experience was important for the work he does today. After returning to Rwanda, Jimmy saw young players facing many of the same challenges he had encountered. He decided to create the Umuri Foundation, a name he explains as meaning “lights”.
“I wanted to be the light for the many young ones,” he says.
Personal experience to social responsibility
The foundation uses football to encourage young people to return to school to develop their character and pursue opportunities that may otherwise be out of reach.
Jimmy’s own journey gives him a particular understanding of the pressures facing the players he works with. He remembers the coach who encouraged him to stay disciplined and told him that his talent could take him a long way if he continued to work. Those words stayed with him.
Today, he tries to pass on the same message to a new generation. His work includes coaching, talent development and coach education, as well as running boys’ and girls’ teams that compete in Rwanda’s national leagues.
The foundation also works with organisations on sport for development initiatives. In community settings, football provides a way to engage young people and communicate wider messages, including campaigns focused on mental health.
“Football is a language most of the [youth] listen to,” Jimmy says. The approach allows him to reach beyond established football environments. He looks for talented boys and girls in the suburbs and other communities, then tries to connect them with more structured opportunities.
That work requires resources. Jimmy says the foundation has received support from organisations including the Imbuto Foundation, UNICEF and the German Embassy, which provided equipment such as football boots. The impact of a simple gift can be significant.
“When you give a pair of shoes to this young one, you know this kind of smile never leaves,” he says.
Resilience is developed through responsibility
Jimmy currently works with a wider academy group of around 120 players, while giving more focused attention to a smaller group of approximately 90 players aged between 12 and 17 who he believes have particular potential.
The goal is not simply to improve their technical or physical qualities. Jimmy wants them to become competitive, mentally prepared and capable of responding to difficult circumstances. He sees resilience as a foundation for performance.
“I still remember what helped me most was my resilience and my character,” he says. Those qualities were shaped by his own experiences as a player. Jimmy remembers an environment in which he and his teammates had to develop mental strength and find solutions for themselves. Although they did not always have qualified coaches around them, the people in their lives always instilled values that kept them disciplined and focused on their goals.
For Jimmy, resilience is not an abstract quality that can be developed through motivational speeches alone. It is revealed in the everyday decisions players make.
Some of the young footballers he works with struggle to afford simple things like football boots, transport or even regular meals. Jimmy does not ignore those difficulties, but he also believes that support should not remove every obstacle immediately. Instead, he looks at how players respond.
“If you have not been able to come for training because of maybe the transport or some circumstances, make sure you take a video and show me what you did,” he explains.
Players may be asked to complete individual coordination exercises at home, recording their work if they cannot attend a session. Jimmy wants to see whether they can find a solution and take responsibility for their own development, maintaining their commitment.
That does not mean he refuses to help. When he sees a player with genuine potential, he may contact friends or seek additional support. But the player must first demonstrate a willingness to go the extra mile. For Jimmy, effort is part of talent.
Small-sided games, big demands
Much of the foundation’s work is built around small-sided games. Rather than relying exclusively on larger team formats, Jimmy and his coaches may spend extended periods working through 1v1 and 2v2 situations.
The format creates repeated individual battles and gives the coaches more opportunities to observe how players react.
“It becomes competitive,” Jimmy says. “They always come in and feel like, ‘Last time you beat me, but I’m going to try to do my best.’”
The sessions are designed to test more than technique. Players must compete, recover from mistakes and find ways to respond when challenged by an opponent. Jimmy believes this repeated exposure to competition helps players develop the mentality required in matches. It also allows him and his coaching staff to focus closely on a smaller number of players and provide more specific feedback.
His preference is to see players who keep going, rather than those who become distracted by difficult circumstances or poor results. “I never want them to complain,” he says. “I just want to see that kind of a player who is running, who is trying to win for the team, who is trying to prove himself.”
Humility and being coachable
The values Jimmy tries to instil are closely connected. Resilience must be combined with humility, discipline and the ability to listen.
He is concerned that some young players can become discouraged when they are criticised. In his experience, however, criticism is part of the development process. Players need to accept guidance from coaches and senior teammates, then use it to improve. “Be coachable, be someone who listens and is humble,” he says. “Ground yourself.”
Jimmy gives the example of a young player who has attracted offers from other teams. Rather than making an immediate decision, the player returns to Jimmy for advice. For Jimmy, that behaviour shows that the player is developing sound judgement as well as football ability.
He also describes a midfielder who has begun to take responsibility for the team around him. The player recognises when the defence is struggling, drops back to help and contributes to attacks. He is becoming a leader on the pitch without needing constant instruction from the sidelines.
That is the kind of progress Jimmy wants to see. The objective is not simply to produce players who can perform a drill or win a match. It is to help them understand the game, take responsibility and eventually influence others.
A pathway to the next level
Jimmy remains involved in Rwanda’s wider talent-development environment. His team participates in the FIFA Talent Development Scheme, and he continues to attend workshops and share ideas.
He believes initiatives of this kind can help Rwandan players reach a higher level, provided that development remains connected to the realities young players face every day.
For Jimmy, the foundation’s work is therefore both practical and personal. It is about training footballers, but also about helping young people build the qualities that allowed them to overcome their own obstacles. “I saw the struggles I went through,” he says. “So many young ones are still going through these struggles. So I said, I could be the voice for almost all of them.”
His story has taken him from Rwanda to Europe and back again. Now, through football, he is trying to make the route forward a little clearer for those coming next.
Founded by former Rwanda international Jimmy Mulisa, the Umuri Foundation uses football to empower young people, promote social change and create opportunities for vulnerable communities. Visit the Umuri Foundation website here.