The ultimate departure of Victor Wanyama from international football has signalled the end of a glittering career characterised by glaring episodes of successes and failures.
Indeed, Wanyama deserves to be bequeathed a dignified and palatial farewell, given his larger-than-life stature.
Few people have achieved his milestone —the only Kenyan footballer to have donned the Tottenham Hotspur jersey, better still, the first one to grace the English Premier League.
His curve might have taken a drastic dip in recent years after a sparkling 14-year career with the national team (seven of those as the skipper), but his glorious years can't simply be wished away.
Wanyama blossomed from a nondescript footballer into a 800-pound gorilla. His glittering career took off during his formative years at Kamukunji High School, where he honed his skills breaking sweat on dusty pitches full of pebbles.
After school, Wanyama plied trade for Kenyan Premier League clubs Nairobi City Stars and AFC Leopards before considering a career in professional football. His first stop was at Allsvenskan Club Helsingborg in 2007. A year later, he penned a four-year deal with Beerschot AC.
In 2010, Scottish Premier League club Celtic and Russian club CSKA Mosco both dangled sumptuous offers, but Beerschot thwarted his departure. On July 9, 2011, Wanyama completed a four-year £900,000 move to Celtic, becoming the first Kenyan to feature in the SPL.
So impressive was he that a couple of years later, he got nominated for the PFA Scotland Young Player of the Year, which was ultimately bagged by Leigh Griffiths.
On July 11, 2013, Wanyama went hog wild and made a giant leap to Premier League side Southampton, again becoming the first Kenyan to feature in the Premier League.
On June 23, 2016, rivals Tottenham Hotspur brought him on board on a five-year contract that saw him earn Sh8.1 million per week.
The rain started beating the celebrated Kenyan luminary in 2017, when he injured his knee in their match against Chelsea, locking him out of action for close to five months.
He returned to training in mid-December and his equaliser in Tottenham's 2–2 draw with Liverpool on February 4, 2018 was voted the Premier League Goal of the Month.
Wanyama picked up a knee injury in a pre-season game of the 2018–19 season against Barcelona.
At the end of August 2019 Tottenham had agreed to offload him to Club Brugge for £13 million, but the deal broke down after he bitterly contested the move.
On 3 March 2020, Tottenham announced that they had agreed to transfer Wanyama to Major League Soccer club CF Montréal.
On 11 March 2020, Wanyama made a maiden appearance for Montreal at Stade Olympique in the first leg quarterfinal of the Concacaf Champions League where he was named in manager Thierry Henry's starting side.
Wanyama earned his first senior national team call-up in May 2007 where he debuted against Nigeria as a 15-year-old.
His exceptional exploits on the pitch earned him promotion as Harambee Stars captain in 2013. His last major outing with the national team was during the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt.
With such impressive credentials and many feathers in his cap, Wanyama most definitely deserves a statue in his honour.
