FIFA Club World Cup: Perspective from a Kenyan Football Fan
Gor Mahia vs Esperance in the CAF Champions League first round on March 6, 2018
In the build-up to the inaugural FIFA Club World Cup, I thought that it was the best time to revisit a time in history when a Kenyan team beat a team that now represents the continent in the global stage.
When this tournament was announced, I, like many others, joined in the bandwagon of visceral negative reactions to the tournament. Just coming off a long, grueling and injury-laden season, this was no time to add another list of fixtures to the list.
The football calendar is already stacked to the brim, congested and bursting at the seams, and the players are paying for it with their hamstrings and other muscle groups that I am too unfamiliar with to know their names.
These reactions are justified.
"FIFPRO’s Player Workload Monitoring tool, which monitors 1500 players spread across the globe, revealed that 54 percent experienced excessive or high workload demands during the 2023/24 season."
But I imagine that this has a lot to do with the obvious cash-grab way that the disgraceful Gianni Infantino is going about it, rather than people being opposed to the tournament idea as a whole.
I mean, who would oppose watching their favourite local teams take on giants from Brazil, the football Mecca and Europe, the football Holy Grail?
In a recent conversation with friends, many of them were much more enthused about the Club World Cup than I have seen online.
"It's just offering something different, you know," One told me when I asked him why he was psyched for the World Cup. "How often do you see the likes of Real Madrid and Manchester City play against teams from other countries in a proper knockout tournament, not like the other Club World Cup nonsense?"
Another who is a great lover of Brazilian football and a Chelsea fan told me that he was looking forward to seeing how Estêvão would announce himself at the global stage ahead of his move to Chelsea in the coming Summer.
None of them are any authority on the matter of course, but they represent a general sentiment among fans of the sport where I am.
And it is in these conversations that I also found myself reeling with excitement. I had tried to be nonchalant about it. Tried to stay unenthused. Tried to pull back like that Drake Hotline Bling meme. But I couldn't.
I have been devouring FIFA Club World Cup content with the hunger of a man who hasn't eaten in days. One would think that I have been starved of football for years.
From 40-minute group by group breakdown on Rabona Football...
...to predictions videos and excited conversations over a drink at a smokey joint, thirsting over watching old rivalries long left to cobwebs finally get dusted and laid on the red carpet at a grander stage.
It was hard for me not to get excited, and I became even more excited knowing that one team with a great history and a connection to one of Kenya's greatest football clubs would have the chance to put on a show on perhaps one of the biggest global club football stages in recent history.
Join me in this write-up as I discuss Gor Mahia's historic win against Club World Cup-bound Esperance and why this tournament is a source of hope for some of us.
1987
The year was 1987.
La Lakers had beaten Boston Celtics 4 games to 2 in the NBA finals. U.S President, Ronald Regan and Soviet Leader, Mikhail Gorbechav would meet in Washington to sign the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty that would mark the first steps to ending the cold war, a certain Lionel Messi had been born, and more importantly, Kenyan football was at its peak.
On December 5th, three days before the signing of the INF treaty, history was made.
In a final played over two legs, Gor Mahia played a gallant game against an Esperance team that was one of the most feared teams in Africa at that time.
After a brush with death when their plane crush-landed in Togo on their way to a semi-final clash with Benin Giants, Dragons L’Oueme, as narrated by Tobia Ocholla to Nairobi News, Gor Mahia would make a nation proud against current World Cup finalists, Esperance.
A Historic Day for Kenyan Football
Gor travelled to Tunis for the first leg of the final and played well, taking the game to the Tunisians, completely subverting expectations that they would sit back and absorb pressure. It was Abbas Magongo and Peter Dawo who would score the two goals that rubber-stumped history in Kenyan football.
Before Dawo's goal, though, Esperance had clawed their way back through two penalties, which to this day, are still disputed here in Kenya. But Dawo ensured Kenya ended the tie two all with his first goal of the tournament scored with his feet.
He had scored nine goals before the final - all were headers. So, him scoring his only goal of the tournament with his feet to set Kenya on the path to victory is a better love story than Romeo and Juliet! Dawo would finish as the top scorer in the tournament with ten goals.
With the game tied 2-2, Gor now had the away-goal advantage and would take full advantage of that with a 1-1 draw at Kasarani Stadium in Nairobi, lifting the Africa Cup Winners Cup in front of fervent Kenyan spectators at capacity in Kasarani.
Unfortunately, since then, Kenyan football has been on a downward spiral and no Kenyan club has ever gotten close to continental football to that extent.
Divergent Paths
Sitting here in my couch and watching as Esperance continue their march into the upper echelons of the football pyramid made me rue the fact that such an opportunity was not available during Kenyan football heydays of the 80s.
I would have loved to have seen Peter Dawo come up against the then young Paolo Maldini or see how Tobias Ocholla would have handled Maradona or Marco van Basten.
Or at least, I would have loved to hear those stories or watch those replays since I wouldn't have been alive to watch the games.
Oh, a Kenyan can only dream.
Right now, Gor Mahia and Esperance are in completely separate universes. It was as though after that final, Gor Mahia remained in perpetual glory, relieving it's old days like a senile old man reminiscing his youth, while Esperance used that loss to galvanise and become an unstoppable powerhouse of African football.
Since that final, Esperance have won the CAF Champions League twice (1994 and 2011), while Gor hasn't even been to the knockouts since.
Esperance has continued its dominance in the African football stage, while Gor Mahia continues to be plagued with financial issues, mismanagement and poor professionalism.
The last time these two clubs met was in 2018 over a two-legged CAF Champions League tie, where Esperance edged out Gor 1-0 on aggregate in Nairobi after a dull 0-0 draw in Tunis. Before that, Esperance had ripped Gor Mahia a good one on 2014, 8-2 on aggregate.
As Esperance goes on to sharpen its claws against the best of the best gives me reason to care because it will be a chance for us to gain perspective of just how much further Kenyan football has fallen.
When Esperance takes on historic Brazilian Club, Flamengo in their opening fixture, I will be wondering what would have been if Kenya had taken that opportunity in 1987 to professionalize its football. Perhaps a Kenyan club would be the one to go up against that Asian, Oceania, Brazilian or European team.
It also makes me think of just how many underdogs upsetting the odds we will witness in this tournament. Imagine a team from Africa, Asia, or The America's making it deep into the knockouts? Imagine them winning the damn thing? In fact, go a step further and imagine an all-non-European final.
Sure, it might not attract the eyeballs that an-all-European final would, but it would certainly etch itself permanently in the memories of the fans of both teams, become a revered folklore in the underdogs' countries, and a chance for casuals and neutrals to witness club football at a global stage that doesn't revolve around European giants.
Just like how our fathers and grandfathers regaled us with tales of the peak of Kenyan football against Esperance, so too, do I wish that we have such tales from the Club World Cup for our own children and their children.
One can only dream.
FIFA Club World Cup Dreams
I believe that many fans of teams outside Europe share this sentiment.
Seeing our teams or teams that play against our teams back home play the best teams from around the world is a chance to gain some perspective on how our football is doing against top-level competition.
Fans from Asia, Oceania, The Americas, Africa, and other parts of the world outside Europe are stoked about the possibility of watching their teams face off against the best clubs in the World in an actual tournament.
Urawa Red Diamonds fans unveiled a tifo in their recent fixture, urging their team to 'Grab the World Cup' and that this was their chance to 'Take on the World.'
A post shared by URAWA RED DIAMONDS | 浦和レッズ (@urawaredsofficial)
South Africa's Mamelodi Sundowns (nicknamed 'The Brazilians' because of their yellow, green and blue jersey and their attractive style of play) see this as an opportunity, not just to show why they are Africa's best team, but also to export the South African experience to the world.
Heck, even Real Madrid, are looking to redeem a dreadful season by promising their players massive bonuses if they win the damn thing.
There is genuine, unfiltered interest in this Club World Cup.
This tournament, in its current format - group stages, knockouts, and actual stakes- has the chance to build beautiful storylines, create new rivalries, prop up tear-jerking underdog stories just like Gor Mahia against Esperance in 1987, and shape narratives for years to come. It has the opportunity to give club football outside Europe a spotlight almost as bright as the UEFA Champions League.
Sure, there have been ideas of it in the past - The Intercontinental Cup, FIFA Club World Championship, and of course, the other seven-team Club World Cup. But none have been as comprehensive a tournament as this.
I still believe that the criticisms against the tournament with regards to how FIFA has gone about it are valid, but from a purely footballing side, this is perhaps the best chance to gauge global club football, and that's a wonderful thing.
The execution of it, and the man leading the execution, all deserve the smoke that they are getting.
But make no mistake, this is a great tournament idea. I hope whoever comes after Infantino takes the good in the idea, strips it of its excessive baggage and turns it into something meaningful, with proper care for the players and the clubs.
That said, no, I won't be supporting Esperance Sportive De Tunis. I am with Mamelodi Sundowns from South Africa - I know for certain that our brothers from down under will pass the vibe check at this tournament (on top of playing well of course).
Go 'Brazilians!' - From South Africa to the World!
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