Kevin Olali : Son of Gor Mahia legend, making waves in USA
By Videographer
One look at Kevin Olali and most Kogalo fans of a certain era will immediately recognize who his father is as he bears a close resemblance to his father. Watching him play on the field and you will quickly realize that the apple did not fall too far from the tree.
Kevin Olali is an exciting winger with dazzling dribbling skills, incredible speed and an ability to take on defenders and leave them for the dead. As a winger, Olali is typically deployed on the left has scored several spectacular goals by slicing in from the left wing and unleashing powerful shots on goal in Arjen Robben like fashion.
His father Sammy Owino was dubbed Kempes. He was a pivotal cog in the Kogalo side that reached the final of the Africa cup winners cup in 1979 and won the CECAFA cup in Malawi in 1980. At the time he was only 19. Many will tell you that Kempes along with Nahashon Oluoch “Lule” and Allan Thigo are the best players ever to don a Kogalo jersey. When in 1982 Kempes and Lule were offered football scholarships to attend Alabama A&M University, many fans were heartbroken but wished them the best. The duo went to to succesful careers as college players. Alabama A&M was ranked the top college team in the USA in 1984 with Lule and Kempes on board.
Back to Kevin Olali, he was a member of the USA under 17 team in 2006. As a youth he played AYSES(Advanced Youth Soccer Education System). His youth coach was non other than his legendary father. This author has had the good fortune of watching Olali play as a 12 year old and immediately saw his potential. While at AYSES, Olali played a key role in steering AYSES to the North Texas State Cup Champions in 2007 and 2006. In the meantime, He played for Plano East High school. His ball control and technique is immaculate thanks to years spent in the AYSES youth system.
After completing high school in 2009, Kevin followed in the footsteps of his father. He was recruited by the University of Southern Florida (USF) on full scholarship to play football (or soccer in American parlance). USF is one of the top ranked colleges in the collegiate competition (NCAA). Remember that Kempes had been recruited by Alabama A&M. In 1984 he and Nahashon Oluoch steered A&M to become the top ranked school in the NCAA.
The NCAA is considered the top tier of college football in the USA. The majority of the Kenyan players who join USA colleges tend to join NAIA teams. Former Harambee stars Players like Bonaventure Maruti, Paul Oyuga, Eric “Cantona” Ochieng, Fred Siranga, Tom Odhiambo, Brian Ombiji, Eric Ongao, Gerald Origi. Vincent Kwarula, Lawrence Olum etc all played in the NAIA which is considired to be a tier below the NCAA. However that is debatable.
Immediately he joined USF, Olali became a key player for the college. In his first year, he appeared in 13 of 21 games and finished with two assists. In his last three years at USF, he appeared in all the games. This author watched Olali twice while he was at USF. He dazzled opponents and fans with his speed and dexterity on the ball and his ability to beat defenders one on one. With his mesmerizing step over moves he often left defenders flat footed. Worth noting is that Olali always played with a chip on his shoulder as if he always had something to prove.
Upon completing his career at USF in 2013, the 22 year old Olali was drafted by the Seattle Sounders who play in the MLS, the top tier league in the USA. The Sounders are the team who boast Nigerian star Obafemi Martins in their lineup. The Seattle Sounders are a mirror image of Gor Mahia. Not only do they wear green, but they have the best fan support in the MLS. In 2012, their average attendance was 43,000 per game, far ahead of second placed LA Galaxy whose average attendance was 23,000. Seattle Sounders fans are also the most raucous.
Being drafted from a college team to the top tier USA league is an incredible achievement. To begin with, in 2013, the MLS was ranked as the 7th best league in the world by Sporting Intelligence. Secondly, it takes very special players to be drafted from college into the MLS. Most MLS teams today have youth teams and are relying less and less on college players.
Of the Kenyans who have played college football in the USA recently, none were drafted to the MLS. Lawrence Olum however eventually manged to make it to te top tier league , the MLS after playing several seasons in a lower league (The USL).
Now that Olali has been drafted, he will be hoping to impress coaches enough to stay in the MLS. Should he not succeed, he may consider moving to Europe as Oyuga and Maruti did when they moved to the Swedish league.
IF KEVIN OLALI IS ANYTHING CLOSE TO SAMMY OWINO ‘KEMPES’ THEN WE BETTER WATCH OUT FOR THIS BOY…………OWINO ‘KEMPES’ WAS OUT OF THIS WORLD !!!
That squad of 1979-1981 was legendary. Perhaps the best this club has ever had. My regret is that you cannot find video anywhere. It would serve to inspire today’s players to aspire to legendary status.
Great article about a prospective future star. However the MLS is not as good a league as you make it sound and you only have to watch American soccer news and MLS news is usually last in the pecking order of news. And as a former NAIA player myself, it is true it is debatable as to what league is better. The top NAIA schools like Lindsey Wilson College where the like of Kwarula, Siranga, Odhiambo and Eric Ochieng went to school or Park where Tojo went are as good if not better than most NCAA schools when we talk about soccer. NCAA rules don’t allow for older players and NAIA rulles are a little lax when it comes to age. The likes of Odhiambo and kwarula were too old when they came here and there wasn’t much of a career in soccer left when they got their degrees. The guys who have watched college soccer will tell you that these guys were as good as they come albeit older and attracted no interest from MLS clubs. Now Maruti and Oyuga were a little younger and ended up in Europe. In fact NAIA has produced players who went on to play professionally like dipsy Solowane of Botswana or Boyzz Khumalo of South africa and Lindsey Wilson , Lebogang Moloto also from Lindsey Wilson who also just got drafted with Kevin, Tyrone Marshal the former Jamaica captain also went to lindsey wilson. Our kenyan players came here too late but were probably some of the best college players of all time and this is a country of stats and you can look them up. None of the players who made it to the pros had better stats than our former Harambee players. So all due credit to Kevin but don’t throw our former Harambee players under the bus. They were just dinosaurs. Good luck Kevin.
Who are we recruiting? Looks like Ingwe has got some quality players in Pinchez and Abdulla from Sofapaka. We need to raid some place, don’t know where though.
Apart from Pinchez not sure who locally is better than our current players. We just need a player to feed our strikers as well as one to assist Danny upfront.
I’m not even sure that there is a player we need to offload. To methey are all good players with some getting limited chances to show their best
I fully support the studious silence from Gor Mahia camp regarding transfer activities. That is the right way to go. Everything should be kept under the lid until the deals are done. This is what we have been advocating and I hope it takes root. My prayer is that the new signings should be quality players: the likes of Shaban Kenga of Bandari who is also in Tusker’s radar. The two Karituri players that Le Pastre had scouted would also be of value. However as Oduor12 has always opined we should be very careful not to sign players who are nursing injuries as we have enough of such already.
Kevin should have left for Europe at age 16 when he had the chance. Staying in the USA was a big mistake. MLS is really not the best league to play for. The earlier kids can get into the academies in Europe the better for their careers.
Has he turned up for the US Senior team year? Is he still eligible to turn up for H. Stars?
Kwani hii Gor Mahia imebakia tu ni team ya historia? Are there any future plans?
NKT!