Leopards loosen purse string to buy foreign players
AFC Leopards have once again displayed their fetish for lavish spending by shelling out all Sh1.8 million in the December-January Kenyan Premier League transfer window.
Former SC Villa sensational striker Karim Nduggwa accounts for 52% of Ingwe’s total expenditure having been acquired for Sh945, 000, with his country mates Emmanuel Ngama (Uganda Revenue Authority) and Fredrick Ndaaka (Uganda Police) trooping into the den for Sh 371, 000 and Sh 360, 000 respectively.
The club spent a further Sh 60, 000 on local based players, although the 12-time league champions received a good financial bargain for the sale of want away midfielder Humphrey Mieno who decamped to Tusker for a dirty sum of Sh 500, 000.
That figure makes the former Sofapaka man the most expensively acquired play.
Gor Mahia’s search for new talent however carried on to the very last day when they succeeded in roping in Rwandan ace Meddie Kagere, although Nairobi News was unable to establish the league champions’ total expenditure on foreign players for the just concluded transfer window.
BIG SPENDERS
Club Organizing Secretary Ronald Ngala said that they are “certain reasons” why they are withholding that information, but that the fee will be disclosed at an “opportune time”.
“We are holding that information deliberately and there is a reason for that. We want the figures to remain undisclosed but we shall make it public at a later time,” he said.
Sources within the club however indicate that the club management is mum about their total expenditure for fear of dissent within the playing unit which it owes close to two month’s salary.
It is however safe to speculate that K’Ogalo easily tops the list of the big senders, considering that they filled all their seven spots reserved for foreign players by bringing the quality skills of Abouba Sibomana (Rayon Sport), Karim Nzigiyimana (Rayon Sport), Meddie Kagere and Zachary Taofiq from Ghana.
Bandari are however the biggest surprise of the end season transfer period after they forked out Sh750, 000 in beefing up their squad. They now have on their side nine new players among them Kenyan international David Gateri and former Sofapaka midfielder Anthony Kimani, whose price tag was Sh 350, 000.