Outgoing Gor Mahia head coach Jonathan McKinstry has reflected on his time with the Football Kenya Federation Premier League side, reminiscing about the memorable moments he experienced. McKinstry, who led the team to two Premier League titles during his tenure, is now preparing to depart for a national coaching position after securing the role with Gambia.
Even before officially becoming K’Ogalo’s coach, McKinstry had expressed a desire to lead the club, having previously worked with some of the players while in charge of the Rwandan national team.
His successful tenure with Gor Mahia has undoubtedly left a lasting impression on both him and the club.
“Some good coaches have come to Gor Mahia, and for some of them, it was a job presented to them. They assessed it and said, Okay, let me go and do the job, while for me, K’Ogalo has been a team I was aware of for quite some time.
“Going back to my time in Sierra Leone and Rwanda, where we had Abouba Sibomana, Jacques Tuyisenge, and Meddie Kagerre, who were here, even back in 2016 and 2017, a connection started to develop with the club, and I became more aware of the significance of Gor Mahia,” McKinstry told the club’s website.
His love for the club was even stronger when he travelled to Nairobi and watched the Mashemeji Derby, a clash between K’Ogalo and their arch-rivals AFC Leopards.
“I remember coming here to watch the Mashemeji derby in 2016 to watch Abouba and Tuyisenge, and I came away from the game at Kasarani thinking if there is an opportunity to coach this team in the future, I would like to coach it.
“That was specific to K’Ogalo and not about AFC. It would have been easy to fall on either side, but I came away from the game thinking that green jersey was almost beckoning me,” he added.
When the job vacancy arose at Gor Mahia, McKinstry says, he was told how risky it is to take charge of the Kenyan giants.
“When I became aware of the interest from the club, I started doing my research, but almost everyone said don’t go.
“Everyone was saying why would you want to take that? It is such a big risk to your profile and career. It is a team that finished eighth or third; they have fallen away; they are no longer the dominant force, yet you go in and you will be expected to win every day, under a transfer ban.
“I would say 90 per cent of the people I spoke to about this job told me not to go, but I knew what I could bring,” the Northern Irish tactician opened.
Challenges
He arrived, faced some challenges and eventually delivered.
“I looked at the situation here at K’Ogalo and said, they need someone who can bring them together like a jigsaw. In the first summer, we had like seven players training in pre-season some days because of financial issues, and even some people inside the club said we might even cancel training because you cannot do anything with seven players.
“But I was like, No, my job is to take what I have here and make it better, so even if it is those seven players, let us give them the best training session we can give them so that when we get the rest of the guys in, we are not playing catch up.
“We were going to instill this belief in the players that if you want to be here, stay and work, but if you don’t want, you can leave. I wanted to be here, and even with the challenges, I was choosing this,” McKinstry concluded.
After taking charge of Gor Mahia and delivering two titles, McKinstry has another chance to prove his credentials on the international stage, having previously worked with Sierra Leone and even Uganda.
