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Player Watch: Victor Wanyama

EQP

EQP
Sep 1, 2013
7,958
29,657
Again, so vital to our team with his intelligence, energy and strength. Had some really nice passing moments today. I'd be interested to see his overall stats today.
 

yido_number1

He'll always be magic
Jun 8, 2004
8,646
16,809
Just grown in every game for us. Wasnt sure when we signed him but he is so consistently good it's frightening.
 

DIEHARD

Well-Known Member
May 17, 2004
4,659
5,443
What surprised me about him is his actual footballing and technical ability and skill.

Really fucking like him and love his smiles everytime he fucking fouls.

Exceptional footballer
 

Dharmabum

Well-Known Member
Aug 16, 2003
8,274
12,242
I didn't know that Mariga was the brother of Wanyama...

http://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2017/04/1...ch-better-at-tottenham-than-celtic-says-brot/

Victor Wanyama so much better at Tottenham than Celtic, says brother

Macdonald Mariga praises progression of Victor Wanyama from his Celtic days to current form at Tottenham.

The brother of Tottenham star Victor Wanyama has told ESPN that he is thrilled by his progression.

Macdonald Mariga, formerly of Inter Milan, says Wanyama has greatly improved since his spell at Celtic, and credits one man with his progression.

The Kenyan picked out Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino as integral to Wanyama's development, with the midfielder thriving for the North London side.

Wanyama played under Pochettino at Southampton too, and Mariga claims the Argentine has been a teacher as well as a mentor to the player.


He said: "I think he got stronger when he started to play at Celtic. He became more muscular -- the football in Scotland, England is more physical.

“But he said Pochettino is the coach who has made him. He's the one who, when Victor came to Southampton, he taught him what to do and how to play -- all the things.

"He's the one who taught him everything and made even more qualities for Victor. He gave him exposure and confidence. If you don't have confidence from the coach, you cannot perform well. He's helped him a lot.”

Wanyama was a bargain signing for Spurs last summer, and looking back, his addition made so much sense it is surprising it was not made sooner.

Mariga's comments speak volumes about the way Pochettino has been able to improve players, a key attribute for a successful coach, and Wanyama could end the season with a Premier League medal.

He has helped Spurs to just four points behind Chelsea, and is in with a real chance of adding to the two title winners' medals he clinched in Scotland.
 
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Dharmabum

Well-Known Member
Aug 16, 2003
8,274
12,242
http://www.espnfc.com/club/tottenha...-wanyama-but-mcdonald-mariga-helped-shape-him

Pochettino made Victor Wanyama, but McDonald Mariga helped shape him


Victor Wanyama is the most important person in Kenyan football but the Tottenham Hotspur midfielder is not the trailblazer for his country -- or even his family. That would be Wanyama's older brother McDonald Mariga -- the first Kenyan to play in Italy, Spain and the Champions League. He won the competition with Inter Milan in 2010 before Wanyama had even played in it.

Now, the 30-year-old Mariga is rock-bottom of Italy's Serie B with Latina, who have not paid him since November, while Wanyama is second in the Premier League and preparing for an FA Cup semifinal against Chelsea. But he owes it all to his big brother. It was Mariga who brought Wanyama to Europe as a 14-year-old; Mariga who orchestrated his first big move and Mariga who advised him to go to British football with Celtic in 2011. He has been the biggest influence on Wanyama's career.

They grew up in the Muthurwa neighbourhood of Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, the middle two of four footballing brothers and the sons of a footballing father.

"Our family are so close. My mum and dad made us close," Mariga tells ESPN FC. "Growing up, they said, 'You have to help your brothers'. We would play football together and maybe at school you would finish first but you'd have to wait for Victor to come home together -- things like that.

"Sometimes you were playing and you would see someone kick your brother, you feel bad and go to stop it. Even now, we speak every night on Skype. Maybe we don't talk on the day of the game so he can concentrate, but we send messages like, 'Hey, have a good game'. But after the games, we always talk. We discuss how it was -- everything. When I don't have a game, I always watch Victor's."

Even when Mariga got his first professional contract in Kenya, Wanyama -- four years his junior -- would go along to training and Mariga recognised his talent from a young age.

"Victor could have been the best player of us [brothers] -- I thought that when he was small," he said. "When you're little, you don't have a mind for tactics. You just play for play. You want to dribble past everyone. He was like that."

Mariga's big break came at 17, when he joined Swedish third division club Enkopings. After a season, he was loaned to Helsingborgs in the first division and he soon signed permanently. Although his success on the pitch was immediate, he was homesick and always cold, so he devised a plan.

"I went to the chairman of the club," he said. "He was friend, he liked me so much -- and I said, 'My brother plays in Kenya, can he come here and train with the second team?' He said it's no problem.

"I wanted Victor to stay with me because I was alone. He helped me a lot. I had my brother and we were going to training together and coming back home together and talking. Before it was very difficult for me because I was alone and it was very cold in Sweden. But with Victor being there, I was very happy. Everything was going smoothly. He did well and everything was just simple and easy."


It was a happy time for both brothers but Mariga's performances at Helsingborgs attracted the attention of clubs across Europe, including Harry Redknapp's Portsmouth, and at the end of the 2006-07 season, he was in demand. When he agreed to join Serie A club Parma, Wanyama was desperate to come too.

"He wanted to come but I went to Parma on loan for six months, and I told him no," Mariga says. "I had to do good for that time so I could stay at Parma. If I didn't do good, I would have to come back to Helsingborgs. I was determined because it was my dream to play in Italy, so I told him he had to stay alone at Helsingborgs. I thought it was good for him to be independent."

Wanyama returned to Kenya but Mariga was not the only one to have impressed in Sweden. There was a buzz around Wanyama, who had made his debut for Kenya as a 15-year-old in 2007 against Nigeria, and a flood of agents were desperate to arrange his next move. Again, it was Mariga who made the call.

"The agents all wanted to help him. One wanted to take him Belgium, one wanted to take him to Russia," he said. "I wanted him to stay in Europe -- at Helsingborgs or in Belgium. But Russia, no, I didn't want that. I didn't think about racism, I just wanted him to be very close, so I could visit him. It was good he went to Belgium."

From 2008 to 2011, Wanyama played for Beerschot in Belgium's first division, quietly impressing. Meanwhile, in January 2010, Mariga was in demand again. Manchester City tried to sign him but, like Portsmouth, they could not get a work permit, despite the intervention of the Kenyan prime minister. Instead, Mariga signed for Jose Mourinho's Inter, three-and-a-half months before their historic treble.

Mariga was not a regular under Mourinho -- he was an unused substitute in the Champions League final against Bayern Munich but featured in the legendary semifinal against Barcelona -- but he loves the Portuguese and cannot understand his mixed reputation in England.

"People who hate him don't understand him, they don't know him," he said. "He is a very cool person, a very good person and a very good coach. I can assure you, if you meet Mourinho now, he is a very good person.

"With players, he is good if you do what he wants. He makes sure everyone has a job, if someone works the way he doesn't like, he will be mad at him. But if you work the way he wants, he is a very good person, a straightforward person, who jokes a lot. I never had a problem with him. In the whole time at Inter Milan, we didn't have someone who had a problem with Mourinho, on the pitch and off the pitch."

Mourinho's glorious departure from Inter spelled the end for Mariga too and at the end of that season; the brothers were both on the move, Mariga on loan to Real Sociedad and Wanyama to Celtic. As a boy, Mariga owned a Celtic shirt which he passed on to Wanyama when he had outgrown it, and he had admired the Scottish giants long before Henrik Larsson arrived at Helsingborgs from Barcelona and tried to persuade him to move to Glasgow.


So Mariga immediately gave his brother's move his blessing: "Henrik Larsson came to Helsingborgs, we played together and he said, 'Maybe I can help you go to win some titles at Celtic'. As we were talking about it, Parma came in, so I chose the first option. So when Victor called me, and he had a chance to go to Celtic, I said it was very good."

Wanyama is certain to return Tottenham's team for Saturday's FA Cup semifinal against Chelsea at Wembley, where his steadying presence will be vital if Spurs are to reach a first FA Cup final since 1991. He has probably been the club's most consistent performer this season and he is one of the only players to have subdued Chelsea's irrepressible N'Golo Kante.

It was at Celtic that Mariga believes his brother matured physically, but it is under his current manager, Mauricio Pochettino, who brought him to English football with Southampton in 2013 and then to Spurs last summer, that he says his brother became "complete."

"I think he got stronger when he started to play at Celtic. He became more muscular -- the football in Scotland, England is more physical," Mariga said. "But he said Pochettino is the coach who has made him. He's the one who, when Victor came to Southampton, he taught him what to do and how to play -- all the things.

"He's the one who taught him everything and made even more qualities for Victor. He gave him exposure and confidence. If you don't have confidence from the coach, you cannot perform well. He's helped him a lot."

Dan is ESPN FC's Tottenham correspondent. Follow him on Twitter: @Dan_KP.
 

LexingtonSpurs

Well-Known Member
Aug 27, 2013
13,456
39,042
Saw this quote from Wanyama recently that really sums up the team spirit:

"When I joined, I thought it would be difficult to get on with everybody because a few seemed a bit distant. But I was wrong," Wanyama said recently. "It's just unbelievable. If anyone wants to go for a meal, they invite other players. Sometimes we go for a meal with the whole team -- it was amazing to see this."

Mabbutt says: "Group harmony is vital -- a winning team doesn't happen through luck. You're at the training ground and there's a great atmosphere between the players, a great atmosphere around the manager and his staff."
 

DEFchenkOE

Well-Known Member
Feb 13, 2006
10,527
8,052
Just came on here to say this, had no idea Mcdonald Mariga was his brother, but looking at his pics now they look alike really bad. Amazing. Not sure why he didn't go by the name Mcdonald Wanyama.
 

kmk

Well-Known Member
Oct 5, 2014
4,146
27,502
Just came on here to say this, had no idea Mcdonald Mariga was his brother, but looking at his pics now they look alike really bad. Amazing. Not sure why he didn't go by the name Mcdonald Wanyama.

According to Wikipedia, his full-name is McDonald Mariga Wanyama
 

Dharmabum

Well-Known Member
Aug 16, 2003
8,274
12,242
http://www.espnfc.co.uk/tottenham-hotspur/story/3112238/tottenhams-wanyama-wins-best-of-africa-award

Tottenham's Victor Wanyama wins Best of Africa Award

Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Victor Wanyama's ongoing charity work was recognised on Monday evening as he won a Best of Africa role model award.

Some of the continent's biggest names in sports, art and entertainment were in attendance at the Rosewood Hotel in Holborn, London for the awards ceremony to recognise some of Africa's sporting role models and their philanthropic contributions.

African entrepreneur and philanthropist Tsitsi Masiyiwa was the event's keynote speaker, and also presented some of the awards.

25-year-old Wanyama is the ambassador for a series of charities, including Jersey-based organisation Jersey 2 Africa 4 Football Foundation.


"Honoured to win an award for my work helping disadvantaged children in Kenya," the Harambee Stars powerhouse wrote on his official Twitter handle after the event. "It's important to help those less fortunate than ourselves."

In winning the BOA award, Wanyama follows in the footsteps of the likes of Didier Drogba, Yaya Toure, Alexandre Song and Odion Ighalo, all of whom have had their work recognised in recent years.

Wanyama put on a brave face for the ceremony, which came just over 48 hours after he featured for Spurs in their FA Cup semi-final defeat by Chelsea at Wembley on Saturday.

The East African featured for 80 minutes as Mauricio Pochettino's side twice battled back to level before late goals from Eden Hazard and Nemanja Matic condemned then to a seventh consecutive semi-final defeat.

As well as Wanyama, Cameroon coach Hugo Broos was also honours, winning an Outstanding Achievement award for his unexpected success with the Indomitable Lions at the Nations Cup in Gabon earlier this year.

Franco-Senegalese defender Mahamdou Sakho and Hull City's Anglo-Sierra Leonean stopper Curtis Davies were also honoured for their philanthropic work, while N'Golo Kante and Younes Kaboul also picked up prizes.


Ed Dove is the Soccer Editor for KweséESPN. Follow him on Twitter @EddyDove.
 

HildoSpur

Likes Erik Lamela, deal with it.
Oct 1, 2005
8,958
28,085
I love Vic. What a fantastic signing he has been. An absolute monster. Some of the posts at the start of this thread are hilarious reading back.
 

kmk

Well-Known Member
Oct 5, 2014
4,146
27,502
I love Vic. What a fantastic signing he has been. An absolute monster. Some of the posts at the start of this thread are hilarious reading back.

Just goes to show that most of us are clueless when it comes to judging a footballer.
 

yusrisafri

Well-Known Member
Jun 27, 2004
6,369
7,548
The man's got skills as well. Very very composed on the ball and brings other players into play with his distribution.

If not for Kane's 29 goals despite missing so many matches, Wanyama would be my clear player of the year
 
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