The history of the beginning of football in Ethiopia lacks official records and documentations. However, according to the only reliable verbal information gathered and preserved by Yidnekatchew Tessema, whose Elder brother Zerihun happened to be among the first few Ethiopians to play the game, football was first introduced to the country by the expatriate communities living in Addis Ababa during or about the year 1924.

In his recount to "Gedamu Abrha", author of the 25th anniversary book of the Ethiopian Football Federation; Yidnekatchew Tessema said he remembered the later part of these first football matches which were confined to the compounds of the Menelik and Tefferi Mekonnen schools only, and also recalled the names of the following pioneer players:- Menbere Yayehrad, Bekele Mamuye, Demisse Haile, his own brother Zerihun Wogayehu, Wakjira Serda, Desta Wolde Yessus, Abrha Deboch (A well known person in the history of the Italian Occupation of Ethiopia, for his failed attempt to assassinate the Fascist Military leader General Graziani and the ensuing retaliatory massacre of thousands of Addis Ababans), Nega Haile Selassie, Sileshi Defabachew, Teklemariam Kiflom and Tesfaye Akelog.

Yidnekatchew Tessema himself started playing for the children’s team of Tefferi Mekonnen School in 1929 and later joined the country’s first sports Club, “ARADA” now Saint George; two months after it was founded by his neighborhood friends Ayele Atnash and George Dukas, in December of 1935. He had a vivid recollection of the beginning of this single club football in Ethiopia. He used to say: - “The challenges the first players of ARADA had to endure were numerous;

• As there was no other Ethiopian club to compete with; we played against expatriate community teams when possible; but for the most part we had to split into two groups and play each other as in the training matches of today.

• Since no one, including the expatriate communities that introduced rudimentary football to the country, knew the laws of the game, we had played lawless football for some years. He remembered with amusement a number of match interruptions and quarrels that occurred as a result.

• We had to buy our own team shirts and shorts and carry goal posts to fields of play.

• As there was no designated football field outside of the two schools; we had to use any available space in the city to play the new game we started to adore. These unauthorized use of fields often caused interruptions of our games when guards of the landlords chased us away for trespassing.

• Some of our players also had difficulty obtaining permission from parents who viewed the sudden obsession with football as a distraction from study and forbid or discouraged their children away from football”.

This earliest photo of the ARADA football team, presumably taken in 1935, enshrines the above general history of the not so old beginning of pre-clubs football in Ethiopia. The children in this photo embody the ultimate genuine passion for the beautiful game. Whilst enjoying their football under these most difficult circumstances; they had introduced and popularized the game to the wider public outside of school compounds thereby creating the necessary conditions for the many generations of footballers that followed. Ethiopian football should therefore always remember and acknowledge these pioneers as the nucleus of its foundation.

It is appropriate to note a significant International precedence here!! the pioneer "Sheffield Football Club", which was founded in 1857, six years before the Football Association of England; was deservedly acknowledged by FIFA among the ten highest honorees for important contributors and milestones in the history of football during the centennial celebrations of the Global Governing body in 2004.