The Legendary Denis Oliech of Kenyan Football, Deserves Our Respect.
Dennis Oguta Oliech, a former striker for Kenya’s national football team, was born on February 2, 1985. When he retired from international play in 2016, he had scored 34 goals, making him the second-highest scorer in Kenyan football history.
Dagoretti Santos and Mathare United were Oliech’s first professional teams. During his youth career, Oliech attempted to transfer to Marseille, but his transfer was blocked by Mathare United.
Oliech, under a pseudonym from the Middle East, played for the Al-Arabi team in Qatar.
After joining Al-Arabi in 2003, he remained with the team until late 2005. In 2004, he had the opportunity to switch to Qatari citizenship, but he declined.
At the time, Oliech was only 19 years old, yet he was already being called “one of the most promising young players in the world” by The Guardian. Al-Arabi turned down a Sh100 million offer from Monaco in 2005 in order to sign Oliech. The Fifa instructed Al-Arabi to pay Mathare United $15,000 in compensation to his youthful team that same year.
Oliech signed a four-year deal with French Ligue 1 club Nantes in 2005 and was given the number nine jersey. Auxerre who was was able to sign Oliech on loan during the summer transfer window. He was bought by Auxerre from Nantes in January permanently after making ten appearances so far in the 2007–2008 campaign. Auxerre will retain him till 2011.
On January 22, 2013, Oliech completed his transfer from Ligue 2 club Auxerre to Ligue 1 club Ajaccio, where he signed a contract for two and a half years. He debuted wearing #29 and scored on his first shot. He eventually transferred to Dubai CSC the later to Gor Mahia FC.
The majority of Kenyans say that Oliech’s most important game was against Cape Verde when he scored a last-second goal to enable the Harambee Stars advance to the 2004 AFCON Championship.
