Simba SC slap Ksh100 million price tag on defender Onyango

Simba SC have sensationally slapped a Ksh100 million ( $1 million) price tag on defender and Kenyan international Joash Onyango.

Popularly known as ‘Berlin Wall’, Onyango has been in fine form for the Tanzanian giants, after joining them from Gor Mahia and is reportedly attracting suitors from a number of other clubs, including South African side Orlando Pirates.

In an interview with Citizen Digital on Tuesday, Simba spokesperson Haji Manara claimed that they had put the price tag on the defender.

Manara has also claimed that he received a call from Orlando Pirates early this week, with the South African side inquiring on the availability of the defender.

“Let me tell you a secret, yesterday one of the Orlando Pirates managers called me to ask about the price of Onyango and I joked, not less than one million dollars. He has reached that level. A player who has been voted the best centre back in the African Champions League, what is his worth ? What of the price tags of players like Miquissone, Manula and Chama ?” Asked Manara.

Simba finished ahead of African club football giants Al Ahly by two points in Group A in this year’s CAF Champions League with a total of 13 points.

Joash,28, was named in the CAF Champions League team of the week in late February after Match Day Two when Simba SC stunned Al Ahly 1-0 in Dar es Salaam a feat that he followed by winning the Simba March Player of the Month award beating book favourites Luís Miquissone and Aishi Manula.

“We are here after a big investment. We used to travel by bus to Shinyanga, Bukoba , Ndondo, Meatu where my friend Salum Mbuzi comes… Those years I used to handle ticketing at the gate then we used the cash to pay for our guest house, petrol for transport. There is a day we got a puncher and I ended up calling Kassim Dewji for help and he referred me to a certain shop with Tsh 200,000 to buy a new tire. That’s where we were, but for now we take flights. This has come because of investments,” Manara bragged, taking time to point to the strides the club has made, under their chairman Mohammed “Mo” Gulamabbas Dewji.

Dewji is a Tanzanian billionaire businessman and former politician who owns MeTL Group, a Tanzanian conglomerate founded by his father in the 1970s.

Dewji has an estimated net worth of US $1.9 billion, positioning him as the 17th richest person in Africa and the continent’s youngest billionaire and is also the first Tanzanian to to be featured in Forbes Magazine in 2013.