Nairobi News

“Welcome back, welcome back welcome back, weeelcome back!”

Did you hear that? This is Mase’s song, and it has been this week’s theme song for the Circuit Girls across the country following the news of coach Zdravko Logarusic’s return to the country and his eventual arrival on Thursday afternoon.

The Croatian’s picture taken immediately after arrival at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport depicting him in a bright blue checked shirt, Luxottica sun glasses and his trademark cartoonish smile has been the symbol of hope in the female fan-dom in the midst of the uncertain times local football is currently enduring.

His first answer to journalists at the airport was that fans have kept him updated about the status of the sport in the country, and that he knows just about everything he needs to know about Kenyan football. He said fans – plural. Catch my drift? Don’t worry, you will once you go back two years down Memory Street.

Anyone who knows the Croat will identify with his endless yapping, his expensive tastes for colorful shirts, his obsession with unethical trysts, and generally, his comic neuroticism off the pitch.

All these are characteristics CGs are well aware of. They also know that he has agreed to take home a lower salary than the figured he commanded in 2012 while at Gor Mahia.

So you will understand why it may take some time before the cock-crazy, beer guzzling, borderline sexual predators otherwise known as CGs begin to swarm around his temporary abode in Milimani, but believe me, it WILL happen. Eventually.

Judging from his movements during his stint at Gor Mahia and his well-documented escapades in Tanzania where he was Simba SC coach until August last year, Loga is not one to shy off from “living the good life”.

HIGHLY COVETED MAN

His off pitch trysts are well documented by several high profile blogs, and the story is the same in Tanzania where he was on many occasions accused of instigating cat fights among Tanzanian beauties, and a scandal suggesting that he had ungodly relations with musician Diamond’s fiancée still hangs over his head.

Anyway Circuit Girls know that he takes in everything, and female sports fandom is his fishing area, so I am anticipating a thoroughly exciting year in local football’s inner circles.

This is despite Loga’s well advanced age, he has never needed to try hard. He knows that his skin tone alone is real gun powder for any girl with shallow ambition, and that many of these girls can readily be found around the stadia.

The first glimpse of him at the airport heavily laden with luggage and in the company of AFC Leopards top brass management took me back to March 2012 when ‘Lord’ Zdravko Logarusic burst into the limelight as Gor Mahia’s coach.

I remembered with nostalgia how intensely he recreated passions within the CG class and how instantly he rose to become a highly coveted man, even at the age of 52.

I recalled how girls would rush down the terraces after the game, regardless of the score, and insist on giving him multiple high fives, with the few courageous ones actually offering a kiss. How these ladies would then proceed to hang around his presence even in public places, hoping that their presence woulf wad of other scavengers.

And then my mind settled on a memory I picked one day after a match pitting his boys against cross town rivals AFC Leopards where a female sports fan (wearing a jersey and imbibing from a brown bottle), theatrically pulled him into the bathroom at a popular joint before openly making out with him upon their return.

MULTIPLE AWARD WINNER

Call me a pervert, but my imagination never fails me and I found myself wondering how much he has changed, and how much he has remained the same as he takes his new office at the helm of the Ingwe technical bench.

Given, his skill, abilities and style have never raised doubt, and in Kenya, he is a multiple award winner who has bagged the Domestic Cup, the KPL Top 8 as well as the Coach of the Year award during his first stint in 2012.

It will never be forgotten to K’Ogalo’s fans that he found the club struggling with one of its worst starts to the season, picked the team from the base of the premier league table and transformed them into serious title contenders.

Although the club eventually lost out on the premier league title race on the final day along with the appearance of a few unsavoury characters such as Brazilian socialite Giovanni Rodriguez, his hand in the glorious position K’Ogalo currently are can hardly be dismissed.

Well, Ingwe find themselves at in the same exact position. The club put mediocre performances throughout the 2014 season and struggled for consistency and they can be excused for believing that Loga is the secret weapon needed in their title chase this year.

Within six months after his arrival at Gor, his gusto had driven the team from relegation zone into title contention, and the club’s seasonal fans rushed back into the stadia in droves, marking the beginning of what the future generation will call the Gor Mahia Resurgence.

Whether he will succeed in doing the same for Ingwe is anybody’s guess, but one thing is for sure. He is sure to light up the game with every match, on and off the pitch, he will provide content for all the country’s blogs, and a few girls will definitely get hurt. Welcome Back Loga.