Somalia is a country situated in the Horn of Africa that has both the Red Sea coastline and the Indian Ocean coastline. Somali sports giants have graced various international athletics competitions over time.
We have provided for you a list of the top ten sports athletes from this beautiful country as a stepping-stone for you to explore more.
Mohamed Jama
Mohamed Jama is a kickboxer in the middleweight category. He is based in Netherlands and practices at Tooy Gym. He has held a record of 27 fights comprising of both European and World titles. He has been playing kickboxing since the early days of the turn of this millennium.
Mohamed Deq Abdulle
Source: Mastkd.comMohammed Abdulle is a professional Taekwondo player who often trained together with his Somali compatriot, Faisal Aweys. They both competed at the Taekwondo African Championships in 2013, held in Tunisia where Abdulle emerged fourth while Aweys grabbed a bronze.
Faisal Jeylani Aweys
Source: Taekwondototal.blogspot.co.ukBorn in Somalia in 1987, Aweys relocated to Switzerland in 2000 at age 13. He trained in Switzerland under Coach Elton De Souza.
In 2010, Aweys won his first national title at the Switzerland Championships after forming his own Taekwondo club together with his friend, Anthony Wood. In 2013, Aweys won a silver medal at the Open World Taekwondo Challenge Championship held in Tongeren.
Aweys reached semi-finals of the Taekwondo African Championships in 2013, held in Tunisia. He won a bronze medal at the end of the championships after fiercely beating competitors fand losing to Egyptian. This improved his global ranking to 56th position.
Zahra Bani
Source: Commons.wikimedia.orgZahra Bani is a javelin thrower who was born 1979 in Mogadishu, Somalia. She is borne of an Italian father and Somali mother. She threw to her personal best of 62.75 meters during the 2005 World Championships in Helsinki.
She is considered Italy’s second-best Javelin thrower of all time. Zahra has been out of active athletics for a while due to health challenges.
Mustafa Mohammed
Mohammed relocated from Mogadishu to Sweden at age 11. He was born in Mogadishu in 1979. He is a steeplechase runner. In 1998 at the World Junior Championships, he finished eighth overall.
In 2003, he broke his personal record of 8:32 by almost 10 seconds to reach a new personal best of 8:23. Mustafa has been performing well at the Nordic Cross Country Championships where he emerged as a bronze medalist in 1997 at the junior level.
He improved on his performance to win silver at the senior level in 2003. Finally, he managed to cap it all by winning the coveted gold medal in 2006. In 2007, he broke the 31-year old Swedish record by posting a time of 8:05:75.
In 2010, he competed in the 3,000m steeplechase, 5,000 meters and 10,000 meters making a triple win at the Swedish Athletics Championships
Abdisalam Ibrahim
Abdisalam Ibrahim was born on May 1, 1991. He relocated to Norway in 1998. He debuted his football career at Øyer-Tretten as junior championships player. He later moved to play for Fjellhamar.
He started off playing for English clubs by joining Manchester City as a junior player in early 2007. He was a member of the team that beat Chelsea 4-2 on aggregate in the FA Youth Cup final.
He transitioned to senior level as a midfielder when he played against Scunthorpe United at the beginning of 2010. He launched his Premier League entry by becoming a substitute player in which his team drew 0-0 against Liverpool.
So far, he has played for several English clubs and on loan to a number of non-English clubs. He probably sets record as one of those players who played on loan for so many clubs and warmed so many benches.
Mohammed Ahamed
Born in 1985, Mohammed Ahamed Jama relocated to Norway where he became a Somali-Norwegian footballer. He is popularly known as ‘Mo’. He debuted his Norwegian football career by playing for Fløya.
He later moved to Tromsdalen in 2006 after which he was bought by Tromsø in 2009. He is remembered for having scored in the 5-0 devastating win against Daugava Daugavpils of Latvia.
Tromsø loaned him to Sarpsborg 08 where he played for one year. Later on, he rejoined his old club Tromsdalen to continue with his football playing.
