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WHY GOR MAHIA IS TRULY "THE HUSBAND OF TEAMS"

 There is no football club in Kenya more successful than Gor Mahia. Perhaps that's why Gor Mahia fans fondly refer to their team as "the husband of teams". Gor Mahia is the first and so far still the only football club in Kenya to have won a continental title. Their storied rivalry with Abaluhya Football Club Leopards Sports Club, better known as AFC Leopards, is perhaps the most lopsided rivalry in world football. AFC leopards stopped winning the Kenya Premier League during the late president Moi's era and has only beaten Gor Mahia once in a competitive game since 2015! This is not a rivalry anymore. Rivalries don't work this way.

 There is nothing Gor Mahia hasn't done. From winning the league title at the first time of asking in 1968, going whole seasons unbeaten, dominating the national team and winning four titles on the spin more than once, Gor Mahia has done it all. No wonder their rivals are green with envy. From the year 2013 to today Gor Mahia has helped itself to nine (9) league titles. That's a lot. Consider the fact that AFC Leopards, their supposed rivals, have not won a league title in that period. Yes, you heard me right: They have won none, nil, null, zero, ninguno, aucun. Tusker on the other hand have won it only three times in that period. From the year 2010 to date, Gor Mahia has never finished a season lower than second place on the table. Such has been their pedigree. 

Gor Mahia payers in 2015: Their fans call them "The Husband of Teams". (Photo courtesy of Capital FM)

But success always engenders hate among rivals. It is rare for Gor Mahia to lose matches in the Kenya Premier League but whenever it happens, you'd think it is a public holiday. Rival fans and even folks that follow no particular football club never miss the opportunity to celebrate Gor's loss harder than they celebrate their own birthdays, you would imagine. The social media will be flooded with mockumentaries, memes and all sorts of taunts and banter directed at Gor Mahia and its fans. It's all good. It's all part of football culture and those who cannot stomach it need not call themselves 'football fans'. But it often goes too far and spills over into overt and covert tribalism with Luo people targeted for nothing more than being just who they are: Luos.

 Gor Mahia is not the best paying employer in the Kenya premier League but players from other teams find it hard to resist their allure. Just recently, Gor Mahia completed the signing of players from Kenya Police, Abaluhya Leopards, Bandari and Tusker (by far the best paying club) bringing their representation in the Kenya CHAN 2024 squad to ten. To put that into some context, no other team has more than three. Gor Mahia takes what it wants. Perhaps that is why they call it "The Husband of Teams."


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