A goalkeeper for a non-league London football club has unexpectedly been chosen as the next King of the Tooro Kingdom, a subnation of Uganda. George Desmond Kamurasi, who captains SE Dons in Bexleyheath, south-east London, was selected by a 21-member royal committee following the death of his cousin, King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV, who died in the US on 27 August while being treated for cancer. The choice has been endorsed by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, though it has drawn a mixed response domestically, with some questioning whether a British national should take the throne.

Kamurasi, 36, lives in the UK with his wife and son and is reportedly reluctant to relocate to take up the role, despite a formal declaration expected as early as next week. His predecessor became the world's youngest reigning monarch at just three years old in 1995, ruling over a kingdom of some 800,000 people. The late king's body returned to Uganda on Friday ahead of a state burial on 12 September, though it has emerged that Kamurasi could miss the funeral due to a clashing football fixture, as SE Dons play in the ninth tier of English football.