Gor Mahia shift focus to Africa

The 22-time champions were celebrating their success at a luncheon hosted by their patron, Eliud Owalo. They were confirmed as the title winners on May 24, with two matches to spare.

Ghanaian midfielder Enock Morrison and left-back Levin Omondi wore eye-catching jewellery.

Bryson Wangai had glittering earrings. The club’s colours were draped over pillars and hung from the ceiling like hammocks. Everyone was smiling, and the speeches only served to prolong the joy and laughter.

Ambrose Rachier, the club’s chairman, relished his role as the event’s MC. He invited the club’s senior management, technical staff, logistics and security personnel, and representatives of the fan base to join him on stage to recognise their efforts in securing the club’s 10th league title in his 18-year tenure.

“We are glad to be here. We have achieved something, and it is important to celebrate,” said the Ghanaian coach, Charles Akonnor.

Philemon Otieno, the outgoing captain after nine seasons, thanked everyone. “We worked as a team,” he said. Alpha Onyango, the new captain, said: ‘We are going to put on a good show in the CAF Champions League.”

Rachier,75, stood by each speaker’s side, smiling like a proud father. He had an anecdote or joke about every player and their time at the club.

Stone of help

He said Ghanaian strikers Ebenezer Adu-Kwaw and Ebenezer Kofi Assifuah-Inkoom had lived up to the Hebrew meaning of their names, ‘a stone of help’.

He introduced Cameroonian Patrick Essombe in French. Enock Morrison was jokingly described as talkative. Paul Ochuoga was praised for his overlapping and switching wings while playing as a wing-back. Bryson Wangai was hailed as proof that Nyahururu produces talented footballers.

Owalo spoke of a ‘long and tedious journey’. He then challenged the club to replicate the feats of the 1987 squad, who won the club’s first and only continental title: the Mandela Cup. “It is time for us to conquer Africa again. We have the capacity and means to do that.”

He presented the players and technical bench with Sh1 million. “It is a small token of appreciation,” he said.

Sally Bolo, Gor Mahia’s vice chairperson, gave a boisterous vote of thanks which saluted everyone at the club and took a swipe at rivals. “We could give two points to AFC Leopards or Nairobi United and we would still be champions,” she said, in reference to opponents casting doubt on Gor Mahia’s title win due to a pending court case from their first-leg match against Nairobi United.

Goalkeeper Byrne Omondi and defender Mike Kibwage, both first-time league winners, were excited at qualifying for the Caf Champions League. “We have been challenged to reach the group stages, and we will do everything we can to succeed because, if we do, we will be the first to do so,” they said.

“I dedicate my league medal to my father. He really wanted me to become a footballer and has always supported me,” said Omondi, son of former Bata Bullets goalkeeper Leonard Odhiambo.

“My medal is for my mother. I wish she was with us today,” said Kibwage.

Morrison: “I grew up in a ghetto called Nima in Accra. You can think of anything bad and it's there, but I came out of that and I am now a champion.”

“My mother was against me playing football, but she is now the happiest person and dancing the hardest,” said Gor Mahia assistant coach Bismark Kobi-Mensah.

"It was a great moment for me. That crowd was massive. Some fans were singing my name: Simba! Simba! Everyone was just happy. The players wished the bus was open top so they could parade the trophy,” said Gor Mahia bus driver Paul “Simba” Odhiambo, recalling driving the team’s bus through a huge crowd of celebrating fans after their victory on Sunday.

In a garden at the venue, the Gor Mahia players and support staff took turns to take photos with the league trophy.

When asked about the feeling of winning the league, Kibwage and Omondi said, “It makes you want to do it again. The feeling is just great and unforgettable.”