Madness of KPL Transfer Deadline

I have never stayed up that late in the name of football without an actual match. But throughout the day it had been gossip here, deal sealed there and rumors milling in from all over. We gossiped, gossiped then gossiped again when we were done gossiping. We played what Jeff Stam described in his column the other day as playing football without football.

Like online stockbrokers monitoring currency behavior, we were glued to #KPLTransferDeadline on Twitter hungrily browsing and consuming any gossip and garbage therein. This 30^th day of June would prove memorable in the history of club football in Kenya.

Earlier in the day someone had talked of Dennis Oliech moving to Gor Mahia. That would make for front page news. It would be item one on Prime Time News and who knows, Prof. Kisiang’ani, the savoir-tout of #OpinionCourt would have weighed in on the transfer! Dennis Oliech coming to Gor Mahia? Well, divided opinion on that but it had already stirred talk. Those who claimed to have inside information were sending seven tweets a minute. And every subsequent tweet was more convincing than the other. Dennis Oliech was coming to Gor Mahia.

Tusker was reported to have triple-raided AFC Leopards and signed Noah Wafula, Emmanuel Ngama and Abdalla Juma. There was no confirmation as the official KPL portal was not reporting anything just yet but given it was an Ingwe exodus, nobody doubted. Leaving AFC Leopards is no longer news.

If the Dennis Oliech whispers were true then Gor Mahia was on the verge of making two huge signings. Paul Were was also in k’Ogalo’s wish list. The lethal left footed winger, who only days earlier had scored Kenya’s lone goal against Congo, was back in the country after his South African club was relegated to a lower league.

But the fans’ spirits were dampened at 5pm when word went round that Paul Were was heading back to South Africa to sign for another PSL club. Later the same insiders said he was Tanzania bound. Simba SC had reportedly tabled a deal too good to reject.

Twists and turns on the transfer deadline day can be fascinating. #KPLTransferDeadline on Twitter was blazing. I tried to stay on that hash tag periodically refreshing, first every 10 minutes, then every 5, 2 and later too overwhelmed by the tweets. The amount of ‘inside info’ was magnanimous. Everyone claimed to have talked to such and such a player, to have talked to club officials, to have talked to KPL officials and so on. Crazy deadline day!

4 hours to the deadline and hopes were high among Gor Mahia fans that Paul Were was signing for them after all. Tanzania’s Simba had insisted on a longer contract while Were wanted nothing more than six months, claimed the insiders. And so he had settled for Kenya with Tusker also emerging from nowhere to compete k’Ogalo for his signature. And hopes were high again. Paul Were was going to sign for Gor Mahia.

At nearly half past 9 and a text message said to be from Gor Mahia chairman Ambrose Rachier gave the fans cold feet. It knocked down even the smallest iota of hope that was still lingering over the probable signing of Paul Were. “Not signing anyone. Paul Were demanded 600k as sign on fee and a 3 months’ salary in advance of 120k…”

Then the fans started trolling Paul Were. “He wants salary in advance; will he score for us in advance? #KPLTransferDeadline”

Watching the eventful activities of AFC Leopards in the transfer market is all that was left. The new administration of the club under Walter Onyino was mopping up all available players in the market beginning with Ugandans Ivan Anguyo and Israel Emuge. That was confirmed by the KPL handle.

Then rumors started milling in that Coach Zdravko Logarušić was regrouping his magical Gor Mahia 2012 team including Rama Salim, Pablo Njuguna, Solomon Nasio and Danni Sserunkuma. “If he wants to sign all former Gor Mahia players then he may as well go for Allan Thigo,” lamented one tweet.

Twenty minutes to deadline and my phone rings. It’s The Nairobian writer John Lawrence, who had himself moments earlier tweeted Rachier’s text verbatim. We have him! He shouted and explained that Paul Were was signing for Gor Mahia as we spoke. Citizen TV’s Mike Okinyi broke the news of the signing and confirmed moments later by the club’s official handle.

I called Lawrence back and soon we were high fiving each other on phone. On twitter Paul Were was a saint yet again. In a span of one hour he’d moved from being a star, to greedy, to messiah. All in one hour! Fascinating transfer deadline!

Within no minute I was on phone with Tony Owori from the Standard Newspaper (I can’t remember who called the other) with whom we traced Paul Were’s path throughout the evening. We found out that former Harambee Stars Goalkeeper and FISA Academy guardian Omondi Korea had trailed Paul Were throughout the day to sensure he signed the deal at Gor Mahia.

Never in the history of the Kenyan Premier League has a transfer deadline day been this busy and for many years it will remain the most memorable. Paddy Power summed it up; what a day to be alive!

@TomBwana