Comeback of striker Oliech as enthralling as his pro debut years back

What you need to know:

  • Nobody embodies the “it is possible” spirit than a returning athlete
  • It is almost as if the clock had stopped but with his return, it has started ticking again
  • Here, the Dennis Oliech effect is already being felt at Gor Mahia even before he has fully become ensconced in the team

With ceaseless repetition, sporting careers come to a premature ending and we sharpen our pens and write the great athlete’s epitaph.

The closing act may have been occasioned by a terrible accident or injury, by the athletes’ own self-destructive tendencies, or even by his or her own diminished motivation to continue. Many goodbyes are final, but others are not. The latter are enthralling.

Athletes who recall their obituaries hold a special place in our existence. They fill us with curiosity and we are unable to take our eyes off every move of their Act Two. Whatever it is that they are pushing back against — age, illness, injury, dwindling financial fortunes — we find their defiance appealing and we join them in their quest, cheering them on. Nobody embodies the “it is possible” spirit than a returning athlete. It is as if they are fighting the battles raging in us, battles we find too hard but which we must win or else it’s a kind of death.

Thus nothing preoccupies Kenyan football fans today than the return of Dennis Oliech. What haven’t we heard about him from the time there was a rumour that he might sign for Gor Mahia, to when he signed, to the progress he was making in training, to scoring the goal that bore his unique signature against Zamalek, to the injury that he incurred in the countdown to Petrol Atletico, and to the building clamour for his Harambee Stars’ second coming?

All over again, the universe of Kenya football is revolving around him. It is almost as if the clock had stopped but with his return, it has started ticking again.

Every twist and turn of Oliech’s life has been laid bare to the public. He was the precocious lad who might have played for Manchester United if he had made one turn and not the other in an early junction point in his career. He was the prospective Qatari citizen who might have made hundreds of millions of shillings if he had renounced his Kenyan citizenship for the tiny, rich emirate.

He is our original celeb of the social media era who attracted armies of remorselessly intrusive gossip seekers whose only interest was his nocturnal escapades when under attack from his 24-year-old hormones.

He was the star player who didn’t hesitate to lock horns with officialdom, whether he was boycotting national team duty over un-refunded personal money that he had spent on air tickets or demanding his rightful share of royalties from billboards that bore his image.

AJ Auxerre's Kenyan forward Dennis Oliech (L) vies with Real Madrid's Portuguese defender Ricardo Alberto Carvalho during the UEFA Champions League football match Real Madrid vs AJ Auxerre on December 8, 2010 at Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid. AFP PHOTO/ PIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOU

Regarding the former, he endured accusations that he was unpatriotic whereas in fact he was the patriot who had exposed rather than refused to give cover to those stealing his money by shielding themselves behind the national flag.

There is enough material compressed in his 33 years to attract academic interest or a film maker’s script.

Take for instance his Qatar sojourn. If it were you, would you take or turn down $6 million (about Sh600 million at today’s exchange rates) in return for Qatari citizenship? There was never any doubt in Oliech’s mind which way to go; he chose to forgo the cash, telling the defunct Soka Magazine:

“I am a Kenyan and proud to be one. I was young at that time but there was no way I could change my citizenship. Football is not all about money. I have seen some of our Kenyan athletes being denied their freedom when they change their citizenship because their passports are confiscated; they cannot even travel and yet they have a lot of money. I have no regrets at all about that decision.”

This was pure wisdom on his part, the kind that comes only in moments of great inspiration. That little mountain of money, looked at in isolation, is quite impressive. But he saw through the glittering package which in fact was a wringer in disguise.

Gor Mahia striker Dennis Oliech in action during their SportPesa Premier League match on January 6, 2019 at Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani. PHOTO | CHRIS OMOLLO |

He correctly figured that if he got in, by the time that money mint was through with him, “Misery”, and not “Dennis the Menace”, would be his other name. And that despite millions in the bank.

Less inspired, or so I think, was his decision to decline trials with Manchester United even with an invitation from no less a football icon as Alex Ferguson.

Soka Magazine told the tale of a 2002 late night visit to the dimly lit and painfully modest house in Dagoretti Corner where Mama Oliech struggled to keep her son Dennis and his siblings in food and shelter.

Her visitors were Bob Munro, chairman of Mathare United and his team manager, Jack Oguda. They wanted Oliech to commit to go for trials at Manchester United for a two-three week period. They were acting for Munro’s friend, Man United director Bobby Charlton of whom Munro said: “I used to send monthly reports on the progress of Dennis to Sir Bobby Charlton and he was impressed by his growth.

He then connected me with Sir Alex Ferguson who personally called me. We had an agreement that Dennis would travel to the UK in February 2003 for the trial.”

But Oliech declined, preferring instead to go to Qatar and play for that country’s top flight Al Arabi.

A deeply disappointed Munro said: “Oliech’s family asked me to help them negotiate the contract with Al Arabi but I declined because I felt it wasn’t right. Dennis could have been up there with the likes of Didier Drogba had he taken the Manchester United offer.

“He was this raw talent with amazing power and lovely intuition in front of goal. They could have fixed a few aspects of his game in two years and transform him to a top striker. I think he wasted two years in Qatar because Al Arabi had Gabriel Batistuta in their ranks and there is no way they were going to bench him for a Kenyan youngster.”

Oliech went on to play in the French Ligue 1, first for Nantes and then AJ Auxerre with whom he featured in the European Champions League.

To play at such levels, to earn so much, to become a property owner and then fritter some of it away, to play dice with drink, to have the national team coach say “no, thank you”’ at your appearance at training camp, to lose the mother who was your constant north, is to become a mature man.

And to decide to turn over a new leaf, to forget the mistakes, to ignore all the snide comments and lies and half-truths on social media and make a comeback in homage to her memory is to show inner strength.

It is not the goals he scores that will be Oliech’s most important contribution to Gor Mahia and possibly Harambee Stars, important though they will be; his most consequential benefaction is what only his team mates already know now by personal experience: the reassurance of his presence. He has been there, done it. He is a wise man now.

Dennis Oliech (centre) celebrates with teammates Macdonald Mariga (left) and Bob Mugalia during a past match. Adel Amrouche has finally cracked the whip on errant Dennis Oliech leaving the  star striker out of his 20-man squad that  jetted out on Wednesday for Moroni, Comoros for their Africa Cup of Nations first round, second leg tie. PHOTO/FILE

Of George Best it was said that just his sight hobbling through the stadium gates on crutches was enough to lift the morale of his Irish team mates.

He needn’t have to play. They probably overstated it, but the point was well made. Here, the Dennis Oliech effect is already being felt at Gor Mahia even before he has fully become ensconced in the team.

And so here we are. Once not long ago, I was told the story of a man who was spending the days of his life lamenting the mistakes he had made in his life and the millions of shillings that had passed through his hands apparently without trace.

He was wondering where all that money had gone. He was bitterly comparing himself with some of his friends while gulping copious amounts of beer. Every day, every night, wallowing in self-pity and disgust and wishing for a train that had left station. It was such a sad story, a man I didn’t know but whose misery I could almost feel. He wasn’t even 40 and he seemed to believe that it was all over.

I hope he takes inspiration from Dennis Oliech’s example. It isn’t over until it is over and ends and beginnings go hand in hand.

The world of sports is full of heroism.

It has an endless supply of examples of men and women who, in the bleakest moments of their lives, when everything seemed lost, refused to see the withering flowers on their graves but instead visualised another luxuriant bouquet presented to them on the winner’s rostrum.