A football manager from Lisburn has led Kenya’s most successful club to their 20th league title.
Lisburn-born football manager Jonathan McKinstry has led Kenyan side Gor Mahia to the Kenyan Premier League title in a dramatic finale to the season.
The Kenyan Premier League’s most successful team won their 20th title with an emphatic 4-1 victory over Nairobi City Stars. It marks McKinstry’s first club honour after having previously won the 2019 CECAFA Cup with Uganda in 2019.
A dramatic end to the season – Gor Mahia win the Kenyan Premier League
Gor Mahia were crowned champions after Sunday’s (25 June) victory over Nairobi City Stars. But the season was not quite as smooth as this final fixture.
In fact, a tumultuous end to the campaign saw Gor Mahia pick up just five points from a possible 15 in their five fixtures leading up to the final game. Their 2-0 defeat of Ulinzi Stars was their only victory in five.
Pressure mounted on Gor Mahia, with defending champions Tusker right on their tail, and the team fell behind just after half-time when Samuel Kapen scored for Nairobi City Stars. But McKinstry and his team responded with aplomb.
The league’s top scorer Benson Omala equalized before Peter Lwasa edged Gor Mahia ahead. Late goals from Austin Odhiambo and Alpha Onynago sealed the victory and crowned McKinstry’s men champions, pipping Tusker by a single point.
Triumph in adversity – an unlikely success story for Gor Mahia
Recent years have proved difficult for Kenya’s most successful team. They finished a lowly eighth in the 2020/21 campaign and had to settle for third in 2021/22. These marked the first seasons since 2011 that the side finished outside the top two.
Add to these failures the handicap of a transfer ban and a threadbare squad, and McKinstry faced an uphill battle when he took on the job as head coach in July 2022.
“We thought even though there were other guys from the youth team, we might have 23, 24 players to pick from, but then we came in and found out pretty late that we are only going to have 18,” McKinstry remarked to Mozzart Sport.
But Gor Mahia delighted their fans by upsetting the odds to win their 20th Kenyan Premier League title.
Of the achievement, the Lisburn man commented, “So few coaches and players get to experience moments like this. There are 18 teams in this league with 30 players at each of them, yet it is us who gets to experience this.
“If you went and asked 100 people on the street in July last year, did they think Gor Mahia had a chance of winning the league, maybe five or ten of them would have said yes. But the players have stepped up and grown up a lot. It is just fantastic”.
McKinstry’s first success at club level – hopefully the first of many
Gor Mahia’s Kenyan Premier League title victory marks McKinstry’s first success at club level. His sole trophy prior to this was the CECAFA Cup that he won with Uganda in 2019.
McKinstry’s football coaching career started with youth development roles at the English Premier League’s Newcastle United and MLS outfit New York Red Bulls, among others.
He made his first foray into senior professional coaching with the Sierra Leone national team, who he guided to their highest-ever FIFA World Ranking of 50 in 2014.
He has since had spells at Sierra Leone’s continental neighbours Rwanda and Uganda, broken up by stints at Lithuanian club FK Kauno Žalgiris and Bangladeshi side Saif Sporting Club.
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