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Without Sophie Makoba there would be no any Dennis Oliech (AJ Auxerre), McDonald Mariga (Real Sociedad), Victor Wanyama (Celtic), Patrick Oboya ( Banik Most) and Jamal Malo Malo Mohammed (Mathare United) amongst other star players.
All the six talented football players have something in common; they all went through Kamukunji High school one of the Kenya’s football powerhouse, with Makoba as the sports administrator.
talent hub
All of them have lifted Kenya’s flag abroad with Wanyama and Oliech becoming the darling of fans in their respective clubs, winning different accolades.
Her determination has seen the school earn a positive reputation in the Kenyan football, competing favoroubly with other giants like Kakamega High School and Mombasa High as talent hub.
-We have had a good reputation for sport for a long time. Most student footballers want to come to Kamukunji School as they know their talent will be developed here, Makoba toldSunSport.
deserved award
Attributing the recent gleaming successes of Wanyama after winning the Clydesdale Bank SPL Young Player of the Month [December] Award, Makoba says she saw it coming.
-Of course, we know Victor is playing at Celtic and we are happy he is at such an important club. We always expected him to play at that kind of level. At the school most of the pupils have to wait until they are in Form Two or Three to make the team, she explained.
-But Victor was in Form One at 13 and he was already in the first team because he was so good. He was one of the youngest boys ever to play in the team, the other boys were 16 and 17 but we couldn't hold him back.
-I know he is a big powerful boy but he wasn't back then, not at all. He was just a very talented boy who played as an attacking central midfielder.
-But at the end of that school year he spent the summer in the gym and was out training, and when he came back he was a much stronger person.
loved the game
-Victor is a boy who just loves to train. He's so passionate about it, he would never miss a session when he was here.
-It was good that he excelled at sport because he wasn't very good academically. But he didn't have to worry about that because he was taken to a youth academy in Sweden for three months while he was still at school.
influential
According to Makoba, Victor had more influence both to school team and his siblings than his older brother McDonald Mariga.
- But Victor always had a big influence on his brothers. There are nine in the family — Victor has three behind him, two sisters and another brother, Harry, who was also at Kamukunji.
-He was nominated by the Kenyan FA to go because he was one of the best players at his age, concluded Makoba.
