TOM BWANA: Michael Olunga staining his name with lies

The week that saw 2015 Kenyan Premier League Player of the Year Michael Olunga sign for a Swedish club whose name easily passes for a typo also revealed a near-treacherous YouTube video of him apparently published on December the 9th of 2015. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auOoOVa8LTY)

In the video the Geospatial Engineering student looks straight into the camera, with forehead shining like a kid who’s bathed in Vaseline he smartly tucks in his chunky lips and in a dashy thirty seven seconds he’s marveled the attention of football lovers worldwide.

Michael Olunga is talking to Arsenal’s Arsene Wenger to consider signing him up for two reasons: one is that he is a young talent at only 21 years of age thereby would fit perfectly into Arsenal’s tradition of contracting young players. Correct.

The other reason, he gives, is that he is the best player in Kenya. He qualifies his being ‘best player’ by confidently stating that he scored 38 goals whole season. Things do not add up here.

The video, posted by Mwaura wa Kabakuri, is dated 9th December 2015. Let’s assume the recording is done on the same day. If Michael Olunga is basing his ‘best player’ status on having won the Kenyan Premier League’s ‘Player of the Year’ award then shetani ashindwe! He is telling lies right in there.

Remember Footballer of the Year Awards (FOYA) gala dinner was held on 9th December, the same day this video is posted. Olunga’s award was the last item of FOYA and was only revealed a few minutes to midnight. What a horoscopy of an intuition!

Unless he had prior knowledge of him winning this award and recorded the video earlier in the day, of which he has to apologize for having feigned a surprised look at the announcement of his name that night, he cannot possibly base his ‘best player’ status on the FOYA title.

Now let’s assume he was basing his ‘best player’ status on the number of goals, which his fidgety eyes blinked for a record thirty one times as he put it at 38, in the entire season. Why then would The BBC report that the video was published in August 2015? (see coverage http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/35598506 ). By August Gor Mahia were just beginning the second half of the season and Olunga, albeit at his peak, had not yet crossed the 30 goals mark.

Nevertheless, staying with Mwaura wa Kabakuri’s 9th December posting date, one wonders what time of the day this video was taken because on that evening Olunga scored his season-ender in the Cup Semifinal loss to Nakumatt FC. Moments after that match he was sampling FOYA’s yummy bites at Safari park Hotel. When was this video taken?

As a young professional, Olunga should know that whatever he claims for himself must have defensible statistical backing. If the video was recorded before the FOYA event, then Olunga’s action of branding himself ‘best player’ was at best the height of conceit.

Lastly, give the video whatever date appropriate, the tallying of Michael Olunga’s goals does not add up. In 2015 he scored 29 goals for the club; 19 in the league, 5 in CECAFA Club Championships, 3 in Top Eight tournament and 2 in GoTV Shield. For Harambee Stars he scored eight; a hat-trick against Botswana, one against Zambia, one against Cape Verde, one against Mauritius and two in CECAFA Senior Challenge.

That makes a total of 37 not 38, Olunga Ogada! So Michael Olunga is needlessly lying about himself? If our players are to make it big in the international arena, they are to be discouraged from altering facts about them.

Olunga was a fantastic footballer and still is. He combined pace, aerial presence, physical strength with a tinge of intelligence as he carried Gor Mahia to glory in 2015. Why then would he want to add unnecessary lolls about him? This is what Tim Jeal, in his biography of Henry Morton Stanley, calls unwittingly presenting oneself to public mob justice.

His dummy that led to Ali Abondo’s goal against AFC Leopards in April 2015 left even the Ingwe fans applauding.  His winner against Tanzania’s Yanga has its incontestable place neatly marked in our memory. His 4 goals-demolishing of Chemelil Sugar in June will be remembered for years to come.  And who would forget Olunga’s Harambee Stars hat-trick against Botswana?

You see, Joe Kadenge was idolized by word of mouth. There are no records of him achieving anything extraordinary, except of course Mambo Mbotela’s embroidered commentaries, to earn him the legendary status (https://d2z29ewm3cfxbg.cloudfront.net/news/opinion-too-much-praise-for-an-otherwise-average-joe-kadenge-69467/ ). But we are no longer in 1965. We have access even to untelevised matches.

The upshot is the youngster does not need to exaggerate anything for someone to believe him. He is good and that’s a fact. He was sending this video to one of the greatest football managers on the globe hence he needed to be as meticulously cautious as possible lest we be lumped with West Africans for cooking up figures to work in our favor.

All the best in Sweden, Michael Olunga Ogada!

@TomBwana