Victor Wanyama
Victor Mugubi Wanyama (born 25 June 1991 in Nairobi) is a trail-blazing Kenyan midfielder whose career spans Europe’s elite leagues and Major League Soccer. After rising through Nairobi City Stars and Belgium’s Beerschot, he joined Celtic in 2011, scoring against Barcelona in a famous 2012 Champions League win. In 2013 Wanyama became the first Kenyan to play and score in the English Premier League with Southampton, earning a £12 million move to Tottenham Hotspur three years later.
At Spurs he was a lynch-pin of Mauricio Pochettino’s high-press midfield, helping the club finish runners-up in the 2017 EPL and reach the 2019 UEFA Champions League final. In 2020 he signed with CF Montréal, where he captained the side to its best-ever regular-season points tally and lifted the 2021 Canadian Championship before agreeing a two-year extension through 2025.
Internationally, Wanyama won 64 caps for Kenya and captained the Harambee Stars to the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, their first appearance in 15 years, before retiring from national duty in 2021. He now serves as a Football Kenya Federation ambassador and funds youth academies through the Victor Wanyama Foundation, which also supports maternal-health projects in underserved counties.
Known for leadership, discipline, and philanthropic vision, Wanyama is working with international partners to launch a high-performance centre in Nairobi, aiming to give the next generation of Kenyan footballers a direct pathway to global leagues.