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Keli completes move to Nkana FC


Kenya international Jacob Keli is the latest high profile football star to depart the Kenyan Premier League for another African league.

The former AFC Leopards forward will on Friday afternoon depart Nairobi for Zambia’s Copperbelt town of Kitwe, where he has penned a two-year deal with the Southern African country’s most popular football team Nkana FC, estimated to be worth Sh 8 million.

“I am not only excited, but motivated to perform well for Nkana. This offer shows how serious competition is over there. My immediate aim is to impress upon the local fraternity and then seek a move to either South Africa, Asia or Europe,” Keli told Nairobi News.

Keli who top scored in the Kenyan Premier League in 2013 and has scored 45 domestic goals in the past three season, has been extensively scouted by the Kalampa (Red Devils), a club that is bankrolled by Mopani Copper Mines, this season.

SIGN ON FEE

The former Sofapaka and KCB FC attacker is said to have received a six digit figure amount as sign on fees, and is in line to earn an estimated half a million shillings each month as net salary and bonuses, depending on the number of competitive games he helps his team to win.

Kenyan international striker Jacob Keli (centre) and his agent George Bwana (left) after he signed a two-year deal with Zambian club Nkana FC.
Kenyan international striker Jacob Keli (centre) and his agent George Bwana (left) after he signed a two-year deal with Zambian club Nkana FC.

Above that, the 12-time Zambian champions have also offered the player a fully furnished two bedroomed apartment in Kitwe town. This amount in total and other amenities is almost six times more than what the player has been earning in Kenya, a factor that KPL’s CEO Jack Oguda terms as a “cause for concern”.

“Other leagues in Africa are coming and giving our players much more money, we need to strategise on how to much those offers in the long term. Losing our players to European and Asian clubs is understandable,” Oguda said.

Keli becomes the third senior player to leave the Kenyan Premier League in the past six after Dan Sserunkuma who moved to Tanzanian club Simba and David “Calabar” Owino who crossed over to another Zambian side Zesco United.