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The retired goalkeeper reminisces about how relegated Tore Bobe denied the star-studded Ingwe season's crown.
Former Kenya international Mathew Ottamax has recalled how Shabana FC denied AFC Leopards a Kenyan Premier League title over two decades ago.
While welcoming Tore Bobe back to the top flight, the retired goalkeeper narrated one of the most defining matches of that season.
"It is Sunday, November 16, 1997, and AFC Leopards are facing Shabana at the Nyayo National Stadium. It is the last game of the season, and it is the last game for Shabana in the Kenyan Premier League. Their fate had been sealed by a one-way direct flight ticket to relegation back to "Nyasi ya Kisii" until Sunday, June 18, 2023," Ottamax posted on a Facebook page.
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"25 years later, and all I can say is congratulations and welcome back! After this match, the two sets of fans shed tears. For Shabana fans, it is evident that the tears were meant to kiss top-tier football au revoir. For the Leopards' fans and the team, they were tears of grief; the unexpected had happened. What happened? The battle for that year's Premier League was fiercely fought to the very last day between Utalii FC, Gor Mahia, Mumias Sugar, and AFC Leopards."
To the former Gor Mahia, Ingwe had the best chance to emerge champions of that season but Shabana, despite their situation then, proved a tough opponent for the heavyweights.
"Among these teams, it was Leopards who had a bigger chance of winning the league title, as we were perched at the top of the table and we only needed one point to clinch the title against a modest and lowly-motivated Shabana, who were rooted at the bottom of the table," he added.
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Migori Youth FC assistant coach Sammy Owalo spoke after the Sunday afternoon match played at Simeon Nyachae Stadium.
"AFC Leopards finished a sad 4th! Shabana, under Danish coach Flemming Jacobsen, paraded schoolboys mostly from Kisii High and Kakamega High School, among them Simeon Mulama, Rodgers Muhanji, and Austin Makacha, who later joined the AFC Leopards including coach Jacobsen, and subsequently won the league in 1998.
"Full of confidence, well-motivated, monied, and with many thousands of fans in the stands rallying behind us, we thought of Shabana as nothing but pure shock! Sleek and fluid were the Shabana lads, they ran rings around us, and helter-skelter we chased the ball desperately like headless cockerels, forgetting that at 0-0 we were comfortable with it no matter what happens in the other fixtures.
"We were lost in the Shabana labyrinth, and it was just a matter of time before they found the back of the net - and they did find a goal!"
Ottamax explained every bit of the match and how the game against Shabana was more psychological than physical.
"Pressure from the fans was mounting on us. Coach Abu Koroma and his entire technical bench were clueless. The Kisii Glamour Boys, as they were popularly known, rode even higher in this confusion that was Leopards," he continued. "For 90 minutes, they dominated us. If it was a game of boxing, a white towel could have been thrown in to stop the contest, but since it was football, we had to wait for the final whistle.
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"And that's why I came to believe that at some stages in a competition, we need psychologists more than coaches on the bench. Finally, it came. Crestfallen and dejected were the players, and furious were the fans, baying for the blood of the players and technical staff.
"Rumour mill had it that Gor Mahia had won the league title, something that made AFC Leopards fans even more bitter with us considering K'Ogalo are our traditional arch-rivals.
"That evening, Shabana subjected me to both emotional and physical pain. By emotional pain, my heart was broken, this was going to be my first career top-flight local football title, having won nothing at my previous clubs - five years in Re-Union and one year at Gor Mahia."
Although Ingwe won the subsequent season, it remains their last Premier League title to date.
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