Kenyan manager takes over Somali champions

Soalia’s current  champions, Banadir Sports Club have signed with John Maura (Kenyan) to succeed the club’s former manager Omar Mohamed Naser who was sacked on Saturday after successive losses.

The new manager, John Maura, has on Tuesday signed one-year contract with the club’s Chairman Abokar Mohamed Sheikh in Nairobi and is due to arrive in Mogadishu on Friday.

“The duration of the contract is one year and can be renewed if we find that important” the club’s chairman Abokar Mohamed Sheikh said in a statement on Tuesday evening.

The chairman said that the club authorities came to decision to fire the former manager Omar Mohamed Naser after losing several successive matches including the General Da’ud cup and the Supper Cup last Friday.

“We have invested a lot in the club, we were the first Somali club to transfer foreign players and we spent such much money to triumph all trophies, but instead we lost in many successive matches” Banadir Sports Club Chairman Abokar Mohamed Sheik said in his statement on Tuesday evening.

He said that football matches are either for win, draw or lose but it was unacceptable for such strong club to lose continuously.

Banadir Sports Club had rewritten an age-old history in last season when they won the country’s Nation Link Telecom championship ‘unbeaten’.

The unbeaten record was the first since 1956 when Gaadiidka which previously known as ‘Autobarca’ won the Somali football league unbeaten and for that reason Banadir Sports Club have been recognized as ‘history rewriters’.

However, John Maura will be the first foreign manager to lead top football club in Somalia for nearly three decades.