At C.R.E.A.T.I.V we of course love to bring talented africans to the forefront. Therefore it was only right I had to do a brief feature on arguably one of the most promising african footballers at the moment....Victor Mugabe Wanyama the Kenyan defensive midfielder who has seen in his value soar in the past year is catching the eye of europes biggest clubs and his current club, Celtic face a battle if they want to hold on to him.
His stock rose even further last week when he put in a vituoso performance to help Celtic beat Barcelona at Celtic Park. In doing so Wanyama became the first ever Kenyan player to score in the UEFA Champions League, currently he is valued at around £25 million pounds by his club Celtic and his list of admirers seems to grow week by week.
This is all a throwback to the early years in Wanyama's career. Upon leaving High School he joined Kenyan Premier League clubs Nairobi City Stars and AFC Leopards from 2006-2008. After a successful trial, Wanyama signed for Belgian club Beerschot AC on a four-year contract in summer 2008. Then came the biggest move of his career when in July 2011, Wanyama completed a £900,000 move to Celtic, who had failed to sign him a year earlier. He signed a four-year contract and in doing so became the first ever Kenyan to play in the SPL. Wanyama chose 67 as his squad number to honour the Lisbon Lions, (Celtic's 1967 European Cup winning team). His performances during December earned him the Scottish Premier League young player of the month award. In his first season in Scotland he made 40 appearences scoring 8 goals helping Celtic to the Scottish Premier League title.
This season the combative midfielder has grown in stature and is arguably Celtic's most valuable commodity. Whether they manage to keep hold of him short term remains to be seen, but you get a sense of inevitability that a player of his quality will soon be wearing the colours of of one of the top clubs in Spain or England.
Still only 21 Wanyama has the potential to become one of Africa's great players.
Ben (Kwesi)
@Kwesitheauthor | @creativafr