AFC Leopards to rope in four defenders ahead of new season

FKF-Premier League side AFC Leopards will sign four players ahead of the new season that kicks off on 24th August 2024.

Speaking to Citizen Digital, Leopards Chairman Dan Shikanda said the team is going to strengthen their defense to improve more on last season's statistics, which ranked them second on the number of goals conceded after 33 rounds of play.

"We are emphasizing more on our defending.

“We did well last season where we finished number two behind the champions (Gor Mahia) in terms of goals conceded; next season, we want to be number one," said Shikanda

According to Shikanda, they will sign four experienced defenders to get rid of their predicament has been exacerbated by its reliance on youthful players since FIFA imposed a signing ban on the team last season.

However, now that the ban is over, they will be active in the market to find suitable replacements.

“Our sponsors left the following season Covid track, and after Covid, all the players who played during Covid were never paid, and mostly the foreigners went to FIFA.

“We were banned from signing and hence reverted to the youth team. The ban is over now we can sign new players."

"We are signing about four key players, and then we shall have one developmental goalkeeper because we are building from the back in the future.

Although we'll have maybe a striker coming in later because we are also working on our attack, which was ranked 12th on goals scored", he added.

The Chairman said they are going to have a stable season since, for the first time, they are crossing to the new season with the coach they had last season as opposed to other seasons. 

"We've been trying to build a team since last year, and I can confirm we are stable, and next season will be better.

“We have maintained our coach, so this will allow easy transition, and this will stabilize the team," he affirmed.

He spoke during the launch of the 'Ingwe Gala Awards' initiative that will be inaugurated next week Wednesday. According to Leopards treasurer Olimpiah Musonye, who represented U42, the initiative is meant to reward the best fans, branches, and players of the season.

"This gala is our way of cognizing the heart and soul of our club, our players, and our fans; we welcome everyone to this historic event.

“We believe this event marks the beginning of great things for AFC leopards," said Musonye.

According to Ingwe patron Alex Muteshi, those that will be awarded in each category have been voted for by the fans, and they are expecting the initiative to grow bigger and incorporate all the categories.

He added that Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi will grace the event that will be held in Nairobi.

 "Currently, we are involved in branches, though, on a very peripheral level, because officials of AFC Leopards have undertaken voting of the players in all parts of our branches.” 

We have invited Musalia Mudavadi to be the guest that day. We picked on him because he has always supported us passionately, and he is among our top fans.

We want to rally branches to come and join us, especially when it comes to strategy level and organization level.

“At the moment, our organization level is only 45, but next year, we are going to engage them (all branches) so that they can come and bring more ideas to make it better."