McKinstry calls for patience with young goalkeeper as he compares him to Manchester City's Ederson and Liverpool's Alisson

Gor Mahia

McKinstry calls for patience with young goalkeeper as he compares him to Manchester City's Ederson and Liverpool's Alisson

Mark Kinyanjui 07:53 - 02.09.2023

The 22-year-old goalkeeper has started between the sticks in each of Gor Mahia's last two competitive fixtures.

Gor Mahia head coach Johnathan McKinstry has compared young goalkeeper Caleb Omondi to Liverpool and Manchester City custodians Allison Becker and Ederson Moraes as he continues to cement his place as the clubs new number one.

McKinstry also appeared to ask fans to be patient with the budding goalkeeper after he was involved in two calamitous errors in each of the club’s last two competitive games against Kakamega Homeboyz in the Charity Shield and the 1-1 draw with Sofapaka in the opening league game of the new season respectively.

“I think he had a very good game against Sofapaka. He has made very good saves and they were moments they played on the counter against us,” McKinstry said.

“He made a very good save coming out of his goal in the first half. He’s swept up well. He likes being further up his line that Gad (Mathews) does, playing that sweeper keeper role a bit like Allison and Ederson but he is a really talented goalkeeper.”

McKinstry described his mistakes as ‘unfortunate,' defending him by saying he really could not do much about the two goals he conceded in both matches considering the circumstances.

“I think he has been a little bit unfortunate. In the Charity Shield, the wall needs to do better and you cannot blame him and against Sofapaka, you cannot blame him because it is an own goal after a full extension of Geoffrey’s (‘Simiti’ Ochieng’s) head," he added.

McKinstry thinks Omondi dealt well with the rest of the challenges he faced, believing that he will grow in confidence with more game time.

“He could not do anything about it, but I thought he did well with the rest. He will grow in confidence, but we also have to be patient with young men.”

The highly-rated goalkeeper was promoted to the senior team permanently in 2021. He played  second fiddle to Gad Mathews and Dolph Owino, before being promoted to second choice in 2022 following an ACL injury to Owino.

The 22-year-old was first elevated to the senior team in 2019 under the tutelage of Francis Oktay but had to return to the youth team given the competition for playing time offered by the trio of David Mapigano, Frédérick Odhiambo and Boniface Oluoch.