As Dennis Oliech announces his retirement, and with a
testimonial due in June, tributes have flown in with many acknowledging him as
perhaps one of the best footballers Kenya has ever produced. Indeed you mention
Dennis Oliech and many will recall the 84th minute goal vs Cape
Verde in that July of 2003 that sent the country into a frenzy and fired us to
AFCON after many years of missing out. We also cannot forget the last minute
winner versus Angola at Nyayo Stadium after Manucho had cancelled out Patrick
Oboya’s opener. Whereas some might feel that he could have achieved more at
club level, there is no doubt that for the current generation of fans, he did
carry the national team on his back on a number of occasions. Still there are
murmurs from some quarters questioning Oliech’s achievements and put things in
perspective, I have decided to compare his goal stats and caps with some of the
best the country has ever produced. While he never played for K'Ogalo, I think it is fine if this blog can digress and pay homage to the one they called 'the menace', a true hero and servant of the country. Can he
measure up to the likes of Ambrose Ayoyi, J J Masiga, Wilberforce Mulamba, Musa
Otieno, Allan Thigo, Ouma Chege and Mahmoud Abass or was he better than them?
It is commonly understood that Musa Otieno has the most senior
caps for Kenya at 94. Very few players get capped for Kenya 70 times and I have
tried to place where Denno would rank among Kenya’s finest with his 70 caps (Fostats
lists him as having 74 caps but 4 of those were for the age group teams).
Rank
|
Player
|
Caps
|
1
|
Musa Otieno
|
94
|
2
|
Jonathan Niva
|
90
|
3
|
Allan Thigo
|
86
|
4
|
John Nyawanga
|
82
|
5
|
Titus Mulama
|
76
|
6
|
Francis Onyiso
|
72
|
7
|
William Ouma “Chege”
|
71
|
8
|
Dennis Oliech
|
70
|
9
|
James Siang’a
Robert Mambo
|
69
|
Denno is indeed keeping company with some of this country’s
finest, footballers who are considered legends of the game here. His caps have included a remarkable 57 starts
and 13 as a sub, mostly in his early days but including the famous win against
Cape Verde. As strikers come and go,
only William Ouma “Chege” and John Nyawanga (played on the wings) made as many
appearances.
It is also quite well known that Oliech is one of the
greatest scorers ever for Kenya and, expecting him to be at the very top, I
placed him among other names that have been known to be prolific for the
country.
Rank
|
Name (caps)
|
Goals
|
1
|
William Ouma “Chege” (71)
|
34
|
2
|
Dennis Oliech (70)
|
33
|
3
|
Ali Kajo (33)
|
26
|
4
|
Joe Kadenge (62)
John Baraza (52)
|
23
|
6
|
Mike Okoth (54)
Daniel Nicodemus (39)
John Nyawanga (82)
|
18
|
9
|
Binzi Mwakolo (32)
|
15
|
10
|
Robert Mambo (69)
Ambrose Ayoyi (60)
|
13
|
In the goal scoring charts Oliech is second only to the
legendary William Ouma by a goal, with just about the same number of caps. None
of the players in this list is currently active and so we must assume that
Oliech’s name among the best will remain put for a very long time.
With these statistics, we can say Dennis certainly does
deserve his testimonial.
PS: It has been recorded that Elijah Lidonde scored 28 goals
that would put him just behind Oliech in the goal scorers charts but details of
these are scanty and do not add up. His records will require verification.
