Year in Review: Opportunities spring up abroad for Kenyan female footballers

During a year in which Kenyan football endured turmoil, the women’s game enjoyed surprising fortune with dozens of female stars landing top deals abroad.

For almost the entire 2022, Kenya was under a FIFA international ban for government interference and during that time the local game suffered dearly from mismanagement.

But transfer opportunities sprung up for the ladies, with Vihiga Queens alone seeing seven players depart for greener pastures.

Terry Engesha (Hyundai Steel Red Angels, South Korea), Jentrix Shikangwa Milimu (Ragumruk, Turkey), Vivian Nasaka (Hakkarigucu Spor, Turkey) are among key players that ditched the four-time Women Premier League champions.

Their teammates Topista Situma and Lilian Awuor moved just across the border to join the Tanzanian giants Simba Queens.

Other players who landed international deals incudes former Gaspo striker Vivian Corazone Aquino, former Fountain Gate Princess (Tanzania) keeper Carolyne Rufa and former Lakatamia FC defender (Cyprus) Ruth Ingotsi who all joined Simba Queens in Tanzania.

These players joined a growing list of other Kenyan players already dominating abroad including Esse Mbeyu Akida (PAOK, Greece), Mary Kinuthia (IF Dalhem, Sweden), and Mwanahalima Adam Jereko and Vivian Nasaka who both ply their trade for Hakkarigucu Spor in Turkey.

But despite all these deals, there is a worrying trend where most of the players only stay with their clubs for a few months and sometimes just weeks before quitting or having their contracts terminated.

Vihiga Qeens Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Michael Ogada Senelwa believes that failing to meet contractual requirements is the leading cause for these terminations.

“It’s very sad seeing our players’ contracts abroad being terminated prematurely. A lot of foreign teams tend to give priorities to their local players hence foreign ones are subjected to contempt. In turn, this demoralizes many of them who decide to end their contracts prematurely or are simply frozen out of the team.

“Many players also don’t stay for long due to culture issues. Each and every country has got its own cultures which may be difficult to adopt into. Most of them don’t cope well with issues including whether, food and language barrier,” Senelwa said.

Veteran administrator Alex Alumirah who is currently attached to Tanzanian side Fountain Gate Princess in Dodoma as a technical director, feels premature terminations are as a result of failing to understand the contract’s terms and conditions.

“Acquiring foreign players is a very expensive process and some clubs tend to do away with them as a way of cost cutting. A good example is here in Tanzania where at some point we were planning to hire a player from a certain West Africa country but due to the expense of the work and residential permits we had to cancel the move and settle with our local players which would be more affordable.

“Another reason is the short stay (trials). Many local players don’t work hard enough during trials to prove that they are worth signing hence are released at the end or before their trials.

“Also a player may be called abroad to fill in a temporary gap left by a sick or injured player and most of the time are released immediately the other players resume their duties,” Alumirah stated.