Former Cranes midfielder Hassan Wasswa Mawanda was on his way to Turkey from Nairobi after representing Uganda against Kenya in an international match when he encountered the worst moment of his football career. A former teammate at Turkish club Kademir Celik Karabukspor, whom he visited at Istanbul’s airport, handed him luggage that was detained at Ataturk.
Wasswa was unaware that the suitcase included two sticks of marijuana, which the airport staff found suspicious and detained him for five days.
“I think my worst day in football came in 2011 when playing on loan at Kayseri Erciyesspor in Turkey”.
“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 “
Reports circulated around Turkey claiming Ugandan international Hassan Wasswa had been detained with 5.5 grams of cannabis in his socks. Fortunately, Wasswa was exonerated after a blood examination revealed that he had never used narcotics. His tenure in Turkey was cut short when his team penalized him 10,000 Euros each month off his wage, despite the fact that he only earned 7,000 Euros, which the player protested to.
