Kenya Football .:. Story - Allan Wanga; The Kenyan Wonder

Allan Wanga; The Kenyan Wonder - kenyafootball.com image

Compiled by Patrick Korir

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The whole, the full, the complete and exclusive story of Allan Wetende Wanga
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Family

Just like many football players, Allan was not born in a well to do family. Allan who is the last born to Frank and Noel Wetende, was born in on 26th Nov, 1985 in Kisumu.

His father is a former AFC Leopards and Kisumu Posta footballer in the 70s and the mum is a former employee of National Cereals Board. Both parents hail from Butere, Shikunga village in Western Kenya. His siblings are Richard Malaki,sister Nancy and the deceased Magdalene(R.I.P).

Early Life

Allan went to Kisumu Primary School where his football was discovered. He seems to have followed his father’s footsteps.

“My elder brother Richard was also a footballer though he was not so keen with the game. He later switched to Hockey but gave up on sports all together” says Wanga on his big bro.

It is while in Primary that he kicked off his football career. While in Kisumu, Allan played for the Under 10, Under 12 and Under 14 levels for the now defunct FIFA Kingdom local club then based in Kisumu, in the Coca Cola Championship.

Allan like many a footballer, started off as a goal keeper. As he says "this was like an introduction to the world of football".

Starting as a keeper, they say, slowly orients you to the game. You stand there watching the game and slowly you get the confidence to venture forward.

In 2002, Allan proceeded to St Paul’s High School, Shikunga. He continued to horn his skills during his period in high school. “In 2004, my school, quite unknown soccer wise, reached the preliminaries at the provincials’ level. We were knocked out by a school known as St. Peters High School. That’s the furthest I went in high school”

Playing career

After high school in 2005, Allan’s uncle who had had been monitoring him for a while signed him at Kisumu based Lolwe FC where he was the coach. Lolwe was then a second tier football club playing in the Nationwide League and sponsored by Spectre International, a firm associated with the Odinga family; therefore at this point he had kicked off his ‘professional’ playing career.

Photo: Wanga at Kenyafootball.com offices near Yaya Centre, Nairobi looking through www.kenyafootball.com
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However, his stay at Lolwe was only but for a while. “I only spent three months at Lolwe since the Nationwide league came to a close” adds Wanga
During which time; his services were being sort after by a Kenya Premier League side AGRO Chemicals. His scoring ability generated much interest that, the AGRO coach had sent some of his players and technical bench to watch Allan play during one of their matches in Chemelil. Allan therefore proceeded for trials at AGRO Chemicals.

Things did not seem work out well for this young and ambitious boy. According to him, he quit the trials due several threats on his life by some of his soon to be teammates who felt that his entry would render their services at the club obsolete. And for fear of his life (it was that bad) Wanga ducked from Muhoroni and back to Kisumu.

“With the Nationwide was over, all i had to do was lounge at home with nothing much to do” he says.

Naivasha

Initially, his mother wanted him to be a soldier or a teacher. So after he quit AGRO, he went for a soldier recruitment drive going on in Kisumu Town.
“My mother could not imagine me sitting around the house doing nothing. She had high regards of Soldiers and asked me to head for the ‘trials’. Reluctantly I had to oblige” Wanga reckons, a bit amused about it.

Photo: Wanga with Kenyafootball's Steve Orina

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Recruitment here means running around town and in the stadium topless and with folded trousers, some soldier would do a thorough physical check on you. He failed the test.

Maybe that was a blessing in disguise (failure) for the young Allan as he would later discover. So while trying to find a sense of direction, his cousin who was staying and working in Naivasha invited him over to extend his agenda less-ness to Naivasha. During the visit, he was introduced to James Nandwa, the coach of Premier League side Sher Karuturi.

Nandwa then welcomed Wanga to train with his side and one week down the line he decided he was the kind of player he wanted. He promised Wanga that he will sign him in the coming week.Before the signing came, big bro Richard called him up to Nairobi. Apparently there was a job opportunity in Canada Richard was pursuing. There were some six vacancies in Canada but some of the people earmarked to take them grew cold feet.

And quick quick Wanga had a passport in two days, waiting for the travel date. But for some unknown reason, the ‘opportunity’ of heading to Canada somehow just died out.

George Sunguti

In Dec 2006, Wanga was on his way back to Kisumu to reminisce on his bad year. Nothing seemed to be working out. As it is he had all but given up on soccer after the disappointment with Agro and relatively with Sher.

Then while at home he was asked to go play for Lolwe once again because Wazee wa Kazi of AFC Leopards were in town and wanted to ‘stretch their aging legs’.

Photo: Wanga with Ligi Ndogo (Super league) players

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In the team was a hoarde of former Harambee stars players including George Sunguti, Dan Musuku, JJ Masiga, Ramadhan Balala, Mahmoud Abbas to name but a few.

And the game kicked off. And the young Wanga showed the Wazee how things are done in the present day. And with quick feet, the now 21 Wanga dazzled aging feet in his wake. At the end of the game the score was 5-1 to Lolwe. Wanga had sunk in an incredible four of the five for Lolwe.

That earned him instant attention. As soon as the whistle was blown, George Sunguti walked to him and gave him his contacts and asked him to travel to Nairobi by the quickest means possible and in the soonest time possible for trials with AFC Leopards.

Jan 2007

On the 13th Jan 07, Wanga picked a bus and landed in the City ready for trials at AFC. However, Sunguti had switched minds and decided that he should go to Tusker instead. That was the time there were two faction leagues – AFC on one side and Tusker on the other. The wrangles galore had zeroed in on AFC and Shabana and it looked like Sunguti wanted Wanga in a ‘trouble free’ team – Tusker.

And so he was handed the Tuskers’ Team managers number – Ken Omondi (now deceased)

Monday 15th Jan at 9.30 am and Wanga was at Ruaraka ready to meet Omondi. But Omondi was nowhere.

As he puts it ‘I was so scared. I had just come from upcountry and here I was at Tusker – the biggest club in Kenya. I was sweating. Actually I had to walk around Ruaraka watching from afar the likes Origi and Midenyo checking in. . . . . I was so scared. Those were guys you only hear about. Seeing them up close was another thing’

With Omondi not picking his calls, Wanga decided to approach the Tusker coach – Jacob Ghost Mulee who had now started conducting the session training session. And Wanga narrated how he got there and why he was there.

‘Ghost’ Mulee asked me to change and he gave me a twenty minute trial. Tuesday being a rest day, Wanga was asked to report back on Wednesday for another session.

Tusker was then playing Mahakama in a friendly. With the scoreline at 1-1, Wanga was given the last five minutes to play. Guess what? He netted the winning goal.

Minutes after that game, Omondi appeared with contract forms which ‘Ghost’ asked Wanga to sign.
‘I was so shocked. I asked the coach if he was mistaking me with another player but Ghost Mulee said “I have signed you to join Tusker’. There were about 12 players on trials and the forms were only brought to him!

That coming weekend the game against Mathare Youth was called off and rescheduled for the following weekend. Wanga was given a seven minutes - debut taste of the Premier league.

“I was just but excited. In less than two weeks at Tusker, I was in a Premier league game.” Narrates Wanga

Wanga at the balcony of Kenyafootball offices
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Credit to Mulee

In the games to come, Wanga earned his start in the Premier league and announced his arrival with a brace. And by the time eight games had gone by he had an incredible seven goals.

His strike partner was George Midenyo but he feels very sorry that he walked to Tusker and denied one of their regular strikers George Odari playtime.

‘I feel very bad about displacing Odari, he was a very good striker’ says Wanga full of remorse.
During the transfer window, Odari switched clubs despite Midenyo having gone to Norway (with Origi) for trials).

“I give credit to Coach Ghost Mulee for giving me the confidence and believing so much in me. Each time I went to the pitch he told me to just hold on to the ball, have an eye for the other players and give a good pass” adds Wanga. “That’s what he expected me to do then”

But when I started to score, it was a plus to all of us. Mulee never expected me to get the goals, at least not that early in the season.

“I will always thank him for getting the best out of me, he made me who I am” reiterates Wanga.

Petro eyes, Sweden mind

Midway through the season, Wanga recalls how one day he was called aside while training at Ruaraka. Thursday, June 17th 2007 it was – he vividly remembers, just like he has the exact days and dates far all other occurences.

There were three men there to see him. Apparently they had come from Angola and wanted him at their club. They were plain and simple. They had eyes from Petro and they were now all on him.

A bit confused, Wanga asked them to the Coach or the Tusker CEO, then Patrick Naggi.

How did Petro get to know about him?

“I really can’t tell. What I know for sure is that once he talked to Robin Toskin of Standard Newspapers who then did a story on me. Soon after it was an agent from Sweden by the name Patrick Mock who started communicating with me on email about possible trials in Sweden for me” says Wanga.

‘Any relation to Angola I just don’t know” he adds.

By the time Petro agents were on his case, Wanga had set his mind on Sweden. After all, most players from Kenya and Africa in general dream of playing in Europe. He was keen to follow club mates Arnold Origi and George Midenyo.

“Petro after all was in Africa – who wants to play in Africa?’ he confesses.

But the Angolans were determined. They called him to the Hilton, a meeting he attended with his brother Richard. And on the table they laid out their personal offer to him . . . . An amount 130% better than what the two clubs would interchange!

“At this point I thought – if I go to Sweden it will be for trials with a myriad of clubs. I could fail. These guys were not calling me for trials, they were signing me . . . . So why say not?” adds a now beaming Wanga.

Several games prior to that meeting, the agents had been taking photos of him and video clips. They knew had the acumen to fit in the shoes of Man U bound Manucho Concalves, who had in turn filled in the shoes of Flavio Amado currently at Al Ahly in Egypt.

By the time Tusker was playing away at Homegrown the deal between Tusker and Petro Atletico was complete. And US$ 50,000 (Approx. Kshs. 3.5M) was tagged on Wanga’s ‘hot’ feet. After the next game against Chemelil, the agents were ready to fly him to Angola. Wanga was now their man.

Premier League Title

However, by this time, there were four crucial games for Tusker – against the then leaders Mathare United. Gor Mahia, KCB and Red Berets were also in wait ready to stop Tusker’s quest of grabbing the title.

By this stage of the league, Mulee needed his main marksman to deliver the trophy that had eluded Tusker since the year 1998.

Convinced, the Petro agents let it be and let Wanga continue with the season. The game against Mathare ended 0-0 effectively knocking the latter out of the title race.

Wanga scored a brace in the games against Gor and KCB and his 21st goal of the season in his 23rd game and Tuskers last season game against Red Berets to hand Tusker the 2007 Premier league trophy. Wanga scored via a 30th minute penalty.

The win against Red Berets, and an away draw for Sony away in Mombasa against Coast Stars mean the trophy was all for Tusker. And just as Wanga announced his arrival with seven goals in eight games, he left no room for further guessing about his pedigree with another five goals in the last four games.

“I have no words to describe that day – Sunday 18th November 2007. I was all chicken walking to Tusker on my first day and here I was being carried sky high for delivering the Premier league trophy for the first time in nine years. I still can’t believe it” says the humble Wanga.

However, four goals he had scored against Kangemi United were sliced off his final tally to reduce it to 17 after the side (Kangemi) was relegated from the league at some point for failure to honor league games.

Immediately after the season, Wanga and Naggi were off to Angola for a 10 day visit from the 19th November. A mandatory medical test was done on Wanga and formal ‘pen on paper’ procedure done to formalize the deal.

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Harambee Stars, CECAFA

Wanga arrived back right on time from Angola, just when the Harambee Stars head coach Ghost Mulee was contemplating where to get a striker to lead Kenya through the CECAFA Challenge Cup that was to be held in Tanzania.

“We played very well in Tanzania. I was happy to score my maiden goal for Harambee Star against Tanzania. That was on 8th December 2007”. Unfortunately Kenya lost that game 2-1 after a last minute defensive blunder.

“Tanzania was really hot and the surface was very alien to Kenyan players. I remember we had to wet our boots to play in some games which were scheduled at 1 pm in sweltering heat” adds Wanga.
Wanga went on to score his second for Kenya against Somalia in a game played on the 14th Dec 2007. John Mwangi had score the first. Harambee Stars won that game 2-0.

Wanga was to score his third, a ‘life saving’ 75th minute equalizer that canceled out Ceasar Okuti’s first half goal that pushed Kenya to penalties. This was during a quarter finals game against Uganda. As fate had it, Kenya lost 4-2 on penalties with Wanga kicking ‘a baby’ that was easily saved by the keeper.

“It wasn’t my day and Kenya’s day” adds Wanga

The trip to Tanzania was a return for Wanga to the National team. He had made his debut to the highest level earning 10 minutes sub appearance (ahead of Patrick Oboya) against Swaziland in Mbabazi in a 2008 Nations Cup qualifier against the home side on May 12th 2007. The game ended 0-0.

Angola

With his newly found tag “Professional player”, Wanga arrived in Angola on 4th January 08. This time there was no Naggi to accompany him – he was all by himself, solo.

“At the airport, what awaited me was almost impossible to comprehend. A bevy of reporters cutting across from Radio Station and TV stations were awaiting Petro new kid on the block”

After all I was in Angola to replace their new boy wonder Manucho who was headed to Man U. In relation therefore, i was being looked at as a ‘Big team’ material, or something of that level. But from Kenya?

A chauffeur driven state-of-the-art BMW was in wait together with a translator. Soon after all the interviews I was driven to a five star Hotel – Tivoli where I stayed for two weeks.

Political Saga

After the two weeks, it was time for Petro to head for pre-season training in South Africa then Brazil – cumulative of a month’s training.
But the most improbable thing happened.

“I was denied a Visa into South Africa because of the post election violence that had rocked Kenya after the December 2007”. It was shocking. “The rest of the players got their Visas apart from me” says Wanga looking quite distressed about it.

And because of that, the Pre-season training in South Africa had to be cancelled and in effect that in Brazil too. Instead the team headed out to Namibia.

“That’s the kind of respect I get from the club. I felt extremely honored by my team to have canceled the South African trip just because of me but then again I was very confused at how a situation back home was catching up with me in Angola” says a still disturbed Wanga.

Petro the team

Petro Atletico is based in Luanda and is one of the best known teams in Angola. The team has not won the Girabola in seven years and that is the ambition for the club this season.

The record 13 times Girabola Champions has about 40 players who can play for the side in the league (apart from junior sides). Of that number, eight are strikers. To make competition for positions even tougher, another four strikers are on trials with the side.

That will explain why it’s not easy holding on to a position on the side. “I have only started one game, but appeared as a sub in another six. I am glad I have scored four times, making me the second highest scorers with the club so far with a goal less than Santana” says the now jovial Wanga.

Another striker, Jamaican Bennet has two goals. He was signed at the same time with Wanga from relegated Allsvenskan side Osters. The 14 team league in general never has scorers with many goals. Manucho last year had 16 goals to top the chats, and the year before he had 14 goals. Flavio Amado, now with Al Ahly of Egypt scored 23 for Petro Luanda in 2001.

“And by the way, when I arrived at Petro, Fabrice Akwa was still here. But the has since left the club”

It’s at this point that we learn that Petro Atletico had also zeroed in on McDonald Mariga. He however declined to join the side opting to remain in Europe.

“Petro really wanted to sign (Mariga) him but he preferred to remain in Europe. He told me that the other week after the Zimbabwe game” clarified Wanga.

As a team, Petro the team trains twice each day but once on Friday. League games are played on either Saturday or Sunday – one game per weekend.
By the close of the league to usher in World Cp qualifiers, in 11 games, Petro had an impressive run of nine wins, a draw and loss a piece.

“The draw came first and the fans were not at all happy. The angry fans vented their anger and mercilessly pelted the team bus with stones” says Wanga. That’s how passionate the fans are.

The game in Angola is much more advanced with sponsorship in plenty and each league game televised live. Clubs are even monied enough to buy players from other league. There is a great Portuguese influence.

“At Petro, I am the only player without a car. All other players drive their own cars. However I am assigned one with a chauffer to get me to my apartment right in the middle of town, for trainings and round and about town”

Asked about his stay at Petro, Wanga simply says he is not sure despite being on a four year contract. “A lot of scouts are in and out to watch the Girabola players, you can’t tell what is next” he says.

On his salary at Petro, Wanga simply says “It makes me very comfortable”

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Interview team: Steve Orina, Peter Ngetich, Chris Amimo & Patrick Korir

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Allan Wanga - Bio Data

DOB: 26th Nov 1985
Weight: 75 Kgs
Height: 186 cm

Nbi Home: Umoja (with Cousin Justus Anene - a Tusker player)

Role models: McDonald Mariga (Kenya), Thierry Henry (Global)

Club career

2008 - ? Petro Atletico – 7 games, 4 goals (As at end of May 2008)
2007: Tusker FC – 23 games, 21 goals

2006: Lolwe FC, Kisumu. Trials with Agro-Chemicals and Sher Agencies (now Sher Karuturi)

National Team: 7 caps, three goals
1st Cap (sub) – 4th June 2007 – Kenya Vs Swaziland (Swaziland)

Photos courtesy of Peter Ngetich