Commemorating three years since Danni Sserunkuma signed for Gor Mahia

Bt Tom Bwana for Citizen Digital

“Get ready to celebrate my goals.” How audacious can a player get? Especially when it is Gor Mahia fans you are talking to! That was in June 2013. The thirteenth of June. He had just been signed from Nairobi City Stars. Coach Logarušić had insisted on signing him. But what would this squat of a Ugandan give us? The fans would ask. He was not any Ivan Anguyo in stature and charisma.

Exactly ten days after the deal was inked, Gor Mahia was playing away at Western Stima and Logarušić threw the pintsized Ugandan into the thick of the woods in Mumias. That was 23^rd June 2012. It didn’t take him long. Danni Sserunkuma scored for Gor Mahia. Another debutant Pablo Njuguna scored Gor’s second of the match but focus was on Sserunkuma, this man who’d be k’Ogalo’s Assassin-In-Chief, the tormentor of opposing defenses.

The November that marked the end of season 2014 brought a huge milestone not just for Gor Mahia winning the historic 14^th title but for Danni Sserunkuma who made his 100^th appearance in k’Ogalo colors.

The Ugandan had splendid instances in matches but the one that still stands out will forever remain October the 23^rd of 2013, the moment that won us our 13^th league title at the expense of Sofapaka at Kasarani.

Goalkeeper Jerry Onyango made a long kick upfront, one touch from substitute Patrick Oboya sent the ball farther to Danni Sserenkuma who was in the equatorial forest of Sofapaka defenders Eugene Asike and Felly Mulumba. Then boom with one electric bang of a right foot and the title was won!

You watch that move, twice; even a fifth time and the hairs of your neck still stand erect. Written on our faces was ecstasy. It’s the closest, I think, you’d come to getting an orgasm in the stadium. He went from a traitor, when he deserted Gor Mahia for some nondescript Eastern European team that never gave him a contract anyway, to savior of a people, the darling of Gor Mahia. Who said a striker must be tall and built? No, you just needed to be a Danni Sserenkuma.

But the fans are still split between that Sofapaka goal and a rocket of a goal in the Mashemeji Derby of 22^nd September the previous year. The second goal in the 2-1 victory for k’Ogalo was stunning. Such a performance! The dreadlocked Moses Odhiambo was taking a corner kick and Ingwe players were jostling in their area to mark the towering Ivan Anguyo and Donald Mosoti.

In these cases, you don’t pay much attention to infinitesimal players like Danni Sserunkuma. But Moses played it short with the understandably unmarked Ugandan who dodged one advancing AFC Leopards player before stupendously sending a furious rocket of a shot to the top left corner of the well-beaten Goalkeeper Patrick Matasi – he of the smile n wave fame. The fans went feral, Logarušić took a couple of triumphant peacock prances while Danni almost swallowed the club’s crest that he was merely supposed to kiss. Fans celebrated not only because the goal propelled Gor Mahia to the top of the table but also due to the magnitude of the opponent; was this really AFC Leopards that Danni Sserunkuma had turned into a rug and was now wiping the floor with?

Straight to figures: Two and a half seasons since his arrival at Gor Mahia in June 2012 under the tutelage of Coach Zdravko Logarušić, Danni made a century of appearances for the club with only five of those coming off the bench – a mega milestone in a highly competitive league of injuries and suspensions.

In the landmark 100 matches, Danni Sserunkuma managed to score 49 goals in all competitions; 38 from his right foot, 7 from the left foot and 4 headed in with Mathare United, Nairobi City Stars and AFC Leopards being his most assured clients scoring 6 goals against each of them. While goals against City Stars could be explained as his desire to prove his worth against a former club, nobody could really explain his love for goals against Mathare United. Of course scoring against Ingwe he at one time explained was merely a hobby.

Curiously he scored in every month of active competition since joining Gor (except for January and December which are non-football months anyway) with most of his goals coming in October (11 goals) and September (10 goals) while June being his driest month at only one goal.

In the three years at k’Ogalo the Ugandan was under three coaches – almost one each year. Coach Zdravko Logarušić scouted and picked him from Nairobi City Stars and the Ugandan rewarded him by scoring 19 goals during the Croat’s entire stay at Gor. Under Bobby Williamson, who while coaching Uganda Cranes had overlooked him during selection, the Ugandan – in probably a self assertion show of might – banged in 22 goals and the remaining 8 scored under Frank Nuttall.

Trademark penalty kicks

Forget the Uganda penalty kick he missed against Ivo Mapunda’s Tanzania in the 2013 CECAFA Senior Challenge, as long as the referee pointed to the spot and Danni was on the pitch, the Green Army was sure to celebrate. The fouled player, if not him in the most of cases, would be quick to hand him the ball. Musa Mohammed often waited for the goal on his knees while Coach Zdravko preferred not to look at the ‘crime scene’ instead looking at the fans for a favorable reaction – which was the case all the time.

The Ugandan would place the ball on the spot and take a few steps back. With thumb in his mouth, like a poorly brought up kid suckling its finger, he’d walk to the ball in hesitantly calculated steps as if going to reposition the ball. Then with an unexpected move he’d kick to the empty net having given the goalkeeper a total displacement. Nerve-wrenching experience! Danni Sserunkuma held our breaths like this ten times throughout his time around here; thrice in 2012, twice the following year and five times in 2014.

Disciplinary record

Of course placed against Collins Okoth Gattuso or Ugandan compatriot Jimmy Bageya he’d appear saintly, but make no mistake; Danni Sserunkuma was not the most disciplined of players. He had that occasional inferiority complex; probably feeling that other players fouled him due to his minute stature. He’d respond with his trademark pushing and shoving off opponents which earned him ten yellow cards in his entire Gor Mahia career; two in 2012, five in 2013 and three in 2014.

All players at Gor are rotated from this position to the other; Musa Mohammed on all positions in the defense, today Walusimbi is a defender tomorrow he is a forward winger and Defender David Owino could play all positions including midfield but Danni Sserunkuma for eternity remained the striker at Gor Mahia. 14 goals in 2012, 15 in 2013 and 20 in 2014, Danni left a colorful numerical résumé for himself and the club.

Danni Sserunkuma goals at Gor Mahia

@TomBwana