Rene Otinga
January 12, 2024 at 12:07 PM
- Kenyan legend Dennis Oliech is set to make a return to football
- Oliech has been selected to play alongside other AFCON legends in Ivory Coast
- He remains Kenya’s leading all-time goal scorer with 37 goals
Kenyan football fans should be very excited.
Their very own Dennis Oliech is set to represent the country at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast in a legends match.
The game is aimed at showcasing the vast talent Africa boasts in terms of its football over the years.
Organized by leading smartphone brand Techno, the Legends match will be headlined by Africa’s top scorer at the World Cup – Ghana’s Asamoah Gyan.
Oliech is also set to be the biggest Kenyan name in sport to grace the AFCON, which kicks off on Saturday, January 13.
According to Ghanaian portal JoyOnline, the match, whose date is yet to be made public, will be more of a celebration of Africa talent over the years.
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Football
Dennis ‘The Menace’’s legacy
The name Dennis Oliech is very familiar to every Kenyan who knows anything about football in the country.
He is largely considered to be the most talented Kenyan player in football history, and is the country’s all-time leading goal scorer with 37 goals in 74 matches.
At the 2004 Africa Cup of Nations, Kenya’s last participation in the competition to date, Oliech was instrumental for his country in the qualifier stages as the Harambee Stars topped a group that had Togo, Mauritania and Cape Verde.
In the finals, however, Kenya had a disappointing run, suffering back-to-back defeats to Mali and Senegal, before redeeming themselves with a 3-0 win over Burkina Faso, according to Kenyapage.net.
Oliech also played for several big clubs across Europe in his lucrative football career including Nantes, Auxerre, and Ajaccio.