Victor Wanyama

Victor Wanyama
Victor Wanyama (2017)
Personnel
Surname	Victor Mugubi Wanyama
birthday	June 25, 1991
place of birth	Nairobi ,  Kenya
size	188 cm
position	Defensive Midfield
Juniors
Years	station
2006-2008	JMJ Youth Academy
2006	Nairobi City Stars
2006-2007	AFC Leopards
2007-2008	Helsingborgs IF
2008-2009	Germinal beerschot
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
2008	Helsingborgs IF II
2008-2011	Germinal beerschot	51 0(2)
2011-2013	Celtic Glasgow	61 (10)
2013-2016	Southampton FC	85 0(4)
2016-2020	Tottenham Hotspur	69 0(6)
2020–	Montreal Impact	0 0(0)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals) 2
2009–	Kenya	53 0(6)
1 Only league games are given. As of January 5, 2020 2 As of March 23, 2019

Victor Mugubi Wanyama (born June 25, 1991 in Nairobi ) is a Kenyan football player on the position of midfielder , who is mostly used in defensive midfield. The brother of the former midfielder McDonald Mariga has been playing for Montreal Impact since January 2020 .

Club career

Victor Wanyama, who was born in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, began his active career as a football player, as did his brothers Thomas Wanyama (also a later professional) and the aforementioned McDonald Mariga, in Kenyan amateur and amateur football and only became a professional in their mature youth Football training. After joining the local JMJ Youth Academy in 2006 , the son of the former AFC leopard and national team player Noah Wanyama has been transferred to various other training centers over the years. Among other things, he played for the Nairobi City Stars in his home country in 2006 and was also active in the AFC Leopards' junior team from 2006 to 2007, where he was often able to train in the men's team. Wanyama's career in Europe finally began in the youth teams of the Swedish first division club Helsingborgs IF . There he made the jump to the second team, but never made it into the professional team. After returning home in 2008 and graduating from the JMJ Youth Academy , he signed his first professional contract with the Jupiler League club Germinal Beerschot before the 2008/09 season and then moved to Belgium on a free transfer . There he was initially mainly active in the youth team, but practiced almost regularly with the professionals, with whom he finally made his professional league debut in the 2008/09 season. He played on October 4, 2008 in a 0-0 draw against KV Kortrijk for the full duration of the match and thus completed his only competitive game for the professionals this season.

It was not until the 2009/10 season that he found his way back to the professional team, for which, however, he only played briefly in the initial phase and was also actively represented in the youth team at the same time. In his sometimes very short appearances, he was substituted on September 27, 2009 in the 0-1 defeat against RSC Anderlecht in the 73rd minute of the game and in the 87th minute he was sent off prematurely with a red card . After a game suspension and almost an hour's stint in the following game against Standard Liège , in which he also contributed a goal assist, Wanyama made the final breakthrough in the professional team and from then on was almost regularly used for the duration of the game. Although he was not represented in the professional squad a few times or only came to short appearances, he made 15 league appearances by the end of the season and was also represented in four games in the Europa League play-offs, of which the team played six. In the 2010/11 season , the native Kenyan slowly advanced to become a regular in the defensive line of his team. Up to the half of the season, he was often in use for the full length of the game, he was also substituted in or out a few times and was only used regularly for the full 90 minutes from November 2010. During this time he succeeded on December 11, 2010 in the 1-1 draw against KVC Westerlo and his first competitive goal in professional football, which Wanyama placed after Čustović -flanke in the opposing goal. At the end of the season, in which the team was again unable to keep up with the top field, the 1.88 m defensive line had a record of 26 league appearances and one goal. He was also represented one more time in four games in the Europa League play-offs, where he also contributed a goal. In contrast to the previous year to a relatively large number of appearances, Victor Wanyama also made it to the Belgian Football Cup of the 2010/11 season , where he was used in four games and reached the quarter-finals with the team. After his contract, which expired in the summer of 2010, was extended, the young defender was again on the wish lists of various international clubs in 2011.

During this time, Wanyama was associated with the German representatives Hannover 96 and Werder Bremen, among others . In addition, clubs such as Aston Villa and Glasgow Rangers are said to have expressed their interest in the young Kenyan international. At the end of June 2011, the Scottish runner-up 2010/11 Celtic Glasgow announced the commitment of Wanyama for a rumored 1.1 million euros and submitted a contract to the player that ran until 2015. Due to the premature lack of a work permit, the transfer to Scotland was only a week later officially confirmed. After he excelled in many games during his time at Celtic, Wanyama moved to the English Premier League for Southampton FC. This transfer, which brought Celtic around 14.5 million euros, is the largest transfer in the history of the traditional Glasgow club.

For the 2016/17 season Wanyama moved to Tottenham Hotspur and signed a contract until 2021. He made his debut for Tottenham on August 13, 2016 in a 1-1 home draw against Everton . On August 20, he scored the winning goal for a 1-0 home win over Crystal Palace .

National team

As a 15-year-old, the younger brother of the current Inter-Milan star made his debut in an unofficial international match against Nigeria in his home country's senior national team in 2007 . His actual debut wasn't to follow until 2009, when he even made a number of international appearances. With the Kenyan national team, Wanyama played numerous games in the qualification for the 2010 World Cup and is also currently represented with the team in the qualification for the 2012 African Cup , where he is also regularly used. Due to the sometimes difficult-to-access data, nothing more is known about any deployments in the youth national teams in his home country. He is currently the team captain of the Kenyan football team .

Web links

• Victor Wanyama on the official website of Germinal Beerschot (Dutch)
• Victor Wanyama in the soccerway.com database
• Victor Wanyama in the soccerbase.com database

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Victor Mugabe rumored to be headed to England ( memento of March 24, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on July 5, 2011
2. ↑ Kenyan Victor Wanyama opts to join Celtic ahead of Rangers and Aston Villa , accessed July 5, 2011