Tag: Kenya

Former Kenya national team captain Victor Wanyama, the first from his country to join the English Premier League, announced his retirement from football at the age of 34.

The midfielder, whose career spanned nearly two decades, signed for Southampton from Scottish club Celtic for a reported fee of £12.5 million in July 2013.

He made 85 appearances for the Saints, scoring only four goals, before agreeing a £11 million move to fellow League side Tottenham in June 2016.

“Today I announce my retirement from football,” Wanyama said late Friday on X. “Four different countries, six different clubs, a boy from Muthurwa with a big dream, carrying a nation’s pride every time I stepped onto the pitch.”

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Victor Wanyama made 64 international appearances for Kenya before quitting as Harambee Stars captain in September 2021 after being overlooked for Kenya’s unsuccessful attempt to qualify for the 2022 World Cup.

He was called out of retirement by the current coach, Benni McCarthy, as the team prepared for the African Nations Championships, which was played in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda in August 2025, but did not take up the offer.

In March 2025, Wanyama returned to the Scottish League when he joined Championship club Dunfermline Athletic on a short-term deal after a two-and-a-half spell with the Canadian Major League soccer (MLS) club Montreal Impact.

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Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe won the Berlin Marathon for the first time on Sunday, narrowly missing a personal best in just his third marathon attempt.

Sawe finished in 2hr 02min 16sec, 11 seconds slower than his personal best set in Valencia in 2024.

Sawe’s time is joint-ninth fastest in history, but fell outside the late Kelvin Kiptum’s world record time of 2:00:35 and Eliud Kipchoge’s course record of 2:01:09, set in 2022.

Japan’s Akira Akasaki finished second in a time of 2:06:15, and Ethiopia’s Chimdessa Debele completed the podium with 2:06:57.

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The men started fast in the warmer-than-usual conditions in the German capital, recording the fastest opening kilometre in the race’s history.

Sawe and the leading pack, including 2024 winner Milkesa Mengesha and Gabriel Geay, kept up the record pace early and were on track for the world mark inside the first 10 kilometres.

Sawe then separated himself from the leaders with a 15-kilometre run, opening up an 11-second gap over Mengesha.

The 29-year-old Sawe had run negative splits in both of his previous marathons but fell off the pace slightly in the second half of the race as the mercury climbed in Berlin.

Despite missing a personal best or challenging the course record of his mentor Kipchoge, Sawe’s time is the best in the world for 2025, 11 seconds faster than his previous mark set in London in April.

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