Demystifying George Blackberry Odhiambo
When he hit the headlines while turning out for Nyanza’s soccer power house Thur gem high school, he was not aware of what lay ahead of his soccer career.The 19 year old George Odhiambo Ogutu is currently a house hold name in Kenyan soccer and turns out for Kenya premier league team Gor mahia fc and the national soccer team Harambee stars.
George odhiambo, born in a family of five in Homabay Nyanza province, joined his dream team Gor mahia in January 2009 and has worked his way up to the frequent starting line up and call up to the national team Harambee stars.
“I know most Kenyans only know me as blackberry and I don’t mind that at all since it has branded me differently and for a good reason I guess. I should go and ask George why he branded me the name because I don’t know anything about its relation to my soccer, I only know blackberry is an expensive flashy phone. Maybe that’s what he meant of me” he said laughing.
Asked whether he shall pursue the blackberry phone marketers for advertising their brand, George is not keen on the assignment but he suggests if they come his way he would listen to their offer since he believes he has played a big role of popularizing their product in the local market with his nick name.
Blackberry Odhiambo admires Kenya’s international players Macdonald Mariga, Allan Wanga and Dennis Oliech .He envisions himself playing in the European league sometime soon with initial negotiations by his agent to play in Germany still taking shape. He however dreams of playing for Arsenal in the English premier league or Barcelona in the Spanish league.
The superstar remembers his most memorable goal to be that which he scored for Gor mahia against Posta rangers in their first leg premier league encounter. He equates the goal to Messi’s style of embarrassing defenders as he dribbled through 3 Posta defenders including Pascal Ochieng to score the beautiful match decider. The goal was the talk of town for a week as its spectacle remained cemented in the memories of his fans for quite sometime.
In the local Kenyan premier league Black berry admires the striking skills of Sofapaka’s Bob Mugalia whom he thinks is the best striker in the league and dreads Tusker fc defender Joachins Atudo.
The teenager calls upon the wrangling Kenyan soccer administrators to put their house in order especially at this time when Mariga and Oliech have opened doors for local players. He sees more scouts coming to Kenya and he is afraid achieving his dream might be hampered by the bad state of soccer management in the country.
“I also thank my fans and the Gor mahia fans for always standing by us and believing in my ability. I promise not to let them down. The future of local football is bright as we can now see large crowds of fans turning out at our stadiums and the world focus turning to Kenyan soccer. This shows their belief in our abilities to perform and entertain” He added.
Gor Mahia is one of the local clubs with the biggest fan base after afc leopards and yesterday’s local derby is witness to the team’s entertaining game. George attributes yesterday’s loss to Ingwe to bad luck as he thinks his team played the better game of the two only for lack of concentration to deny Gor at least a point.
May George Blackberry Odhiambo’s star keep shining.