Rename City, Nyayo or MISC after Kenya’s greatest football player

 

Who is the world’s greatest sportsman of all time? Put another way, how does one go about picking the greatest sports person that ever lived?

Do you look at the number of titles won, the popularity of the individual, their earning power or the influence they had in the sport and beyond?

I would personally choose the self-confessed “I’m the greatest” USA heavyweight boxer Mohammed Ali (the late) as, well, the greatest of all time.

The choice for the greatest athlete across sports, eras and nations is a real mixed basket of fruits. It is like trying to compare apples and oranges or Alliance High School and Mangu High School.

But, seemingly, Brazil have no problem deciding who is their greatest footballer, and perhaps the country’s best sportsman of all time: Edson Arantes do Nascimento, better known as Pele.

The football legend, now 80, needs no introduction. He is considered the greatest footballer of all time, though others would pick the tiny Argentine magician Diego Maradona (the late) while latter day followers of the sport are divided between another Argentine wizard Messi and Portuguese superstar Ronaldo.

Pele was named the greatest player of the century by world football governing body Fifa and is undoubtedly the most successful of his generation.

He won three Fifa World Cups with Brazil in 1958, 1962 and 1970, the only player to do so. He is the all-time leading goal scorer for Brazil with 77 goals in 92 internationals. His total of 1,279 goals in 1,363 games in all competitions is a Guinness World Record.

It is for these reasons that the state of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil last week voted to change the name of the country’s iconic Maracana stadium to that of the legendary footballer, in his honour.

The venue will thus be known as Edson Arantes do Nascimento - Rei Pele Stadium. Rei means king in Portuguese.

King Pele, aptly, scored his 1,000th goal at the stadium in 1969 when playing for Santos against Vasco da Gama.

The Maracana, considered the Mecca of Brazilian football, was in fact named after Mario Filho, a journalist who lobbied for its construction in the 1940s. However, it was better known as the Maracana after the area in which it is located.

The renaming got me thinking. Just the other day there was an outcry over the government’s intention to rename Gusii Stadium after Simeon Nyachae to posthumously honour him for his political service to this country.

No slight to the fallen public servant, but many Kenyans wondered, and rightly so, why couldn’t the stadium be named after a great athlete of the nation, preferably from the area.

Several names were suggested. Athlete Nyandika Maiyoro (the late), a pioneer long distance runner of Kenya. Yobes Ondieki, the 1991 World Athletics Championships 5,000m gold medallist and first man to break the 27 minute barrier in the 10,000m in 1993.

Henry Motego, ex-Harambee Stars deadly striker and easily the best-known football export from Kisii.

The debate raged on on how the Kenyan authorities have scarcely given sportsmen and women prominence when it comes to honouring persons who have done great service to this country.

Come to think of it, the only major public sports facilities in this country named after a sports personality that I know of are the Kipchoge Keino stadiums in Eldoret and Kapsabet.

Keino is arguably the greatest Kenyan athlete of all time. He won two Olympic gold medals, three Commonwealth Games gold medals, two All Africa Games medals and is a former holder of multiple world records in distance running.

The fact though is football is easily the most popular sport in this country. Is it not time we also renamed one of our three internationally known football stadiums -- City Stadium, Nyayo National Stadium or Moi International Sports Centre, after Kenya’s greatest football player of all time?

How many famous international football matches have been held, formerly at City before Nyayo became the main venue for big matches and latterly at our most modern and grandest sports facility, MISC?

But now the question will be, who is Kenya’s greatest football player of all time? I bet opinion will be greatly divided.

Would it be the early post-independence stars like the legendary Elijah Lidonde, Shem Chimoto and Kadir Farah et al.

Or the 1960s and 1970s heroes like Joe Kadenge, Jonathan Niva, William Chege Ouma and Allan Thigo.

What of the 1980s and the likes of Wilberforce Mulamba, Josephat Murila, Sammy Owino and Mohamoud Abbas. Latter-day players like Musa Otieno and Dennis Oliech would deserve a shout.

Perhaps a national football convention to decide on who is Kenya’s greatest football player of all time would settle this debate.

The meeting could come up with a shortlist from which the nation could vote on whom they considered the best of the best to lessen the controversy that comes with such a subjective exercise.

Personally, I would love to see one of our great footballers honoured with a national stadium name while they are still alive, though ironically, the one I have in mind passed on, on July 7, 2019. 

However, the biggest question of all is, will the government even/ever consider the notion of renaming any of these three stadiums?  BY DAILY NATION