Victor Wanyama’s seven-year stint in the English Premier League has ended after he completed a move to Canada’s Montreal Impact Wednesday.
Here, Nation Sport samples the highlights and low moments of Kenya’s captain’s tenure in the world’s most popular football league where he featured for Southampton and Tottenham Hotspur.
1. He joined Southampton in July 2013 for a reported record-breaking Sh1.2 billion transfer, becoming the first and most expensive East African footballer to compete in the prestigious competition.
2. He scored his first goal for the Saints in a 1–0 league victory over Swansea City at the Liberty Stadium on September 20, 2014, after replacing James Ward-Prowse in the 69th minute.
3. He was a victim of a robbery in 2014 when thieves gained access to his residence and took away several valuable belongings including his Range Rover car, shoes, clothes, jewellery, and memorabilia when he was out on club duty. “They even took away my pants,” he recalled in an interview.
4. Wanyama became the first player from East African region to captain an English club after he guided Southampton to a 2-1 win over Aston Villa in Capital One Cup on October 28, 2015.
5. His best-ever performance in a Southampton shirt arguably came against Arsenal in 2015, where he marked forwards Alexis Sanchez, Mesut Ozil, and Olivier Giroud out of the game. Southampton won the match 4-0 and the BBC later reported: “They (Southampton) were marshalled brilliantly in the middle of the park by the superb Victor Wanyama, who made a match-high six tackles and 10 interceptions, often bullying the opposition players.”
6. Three years later, he joined Tottenham for another record Sh1.5 billion move and signed a five-year contract that ensured him a gross pay of Sh1 million every day.
7. He was never going to be a consistent goalscorer being a defensive-minded midfielder. But he scored the lone goal on his home debut in the 1-0 win over Crystal Palace on August 20, 2016. “Getting a goal on my debut in front of my fans was just amazing,” he explained in his post-match interview.
8. He also scored a thumping header against Manchester United, plus a rocket shot against Liverpool which the Premier League voted as the goal of the month. Wanyama also scored against Crystal Palace in the historic final game before White Hart Lane was closed for renovations.
9. The move to Tottenham gave him a chance to feature in the prestigious Uefa Champions League. In the competition, he earned a chance to play alongside some of the greatest football teams in the world including Real Madrid, Barcelona, Inter Milan, and Juventus, whilst brushing shoulders against the likes of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. He was part of the Spurs team which made it to the final of the competition last year.
10. A series of injuries and loss of form saw him fall out with former Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino who once described handing him game time to be akin to a ”charity” session. He was also almost never considered by current manager Jose Mourinho for game time.