Finally, Kenyan striker Michael Olunga has been given a four year deal at Swedish side Djurgardens IF after impressing on trials for one month.
The 2015 Most Valuable Player of the Year has been at the club since January this year and has met the expectations of the club following impressive displays in trial games in which he scored a coupled of goals including a stunner against AFK.
His signature has been welcomed by many DIF supporters and club director Bosse Andersson, couldn’t be happier with the development.
“Michael was a player that we followed in early autumn, and he had the qualities we were looking for. After a long process and dialogue as he came to the final here in January and has been in the business since it’s where he slowly acclimated and developed,” he said.
He is very ambitious and purposeful, trains hard and always want to learn and take the next step. Then I think he made a fantastic impression as a person both on and off the pitch. The development potential is huge so the peace and quiet of our Djurgårdens environment he can develop into a striker for the biggest leagues in Europe. It is the goal of Michael himself and he has the characteristics required for it.
Olunga famously known as the Engineer couldn’t hide his joy after penning the deal and thanked all the stakeholders at the club for signing him right from the staff to players and fans.
There will be a lot of attention at home in Kenya on this and I am very happy that it’s done with Djurgarden now. The association has received me in a great way and I want to say a big thanks to Bosse (Andersson), Henry (Berggren), Daniel (Granqvist) and coaches Pelle Olsson for their support. Obviously, even the players who received me in a nice way. It has been a challenge for me but it feels very good now.
A student of Geospatial Engineering, the former Thika United and Gor Mahia FC striker will continue with his studies at the University of Stockholm.
He also had time to talk about his new jersey number 17 which he will be donning at the club from the 19 he put on at K’Ogalo.
I will continue my studies at the University of Stockholm so just as before it will be both football and studies and I committed to do well with both. Previously, I had the jersey number 19 in Gor Mahia and scored 19 goals so we’ll see if it gets 17 goals for DIF this season. I hope I can DIF lift table during my time here and I will do my absolute best to contribute to it. Perhaps we in Europe in the near future, we’ll see. But I will bet everything so we hope it has brought results when we sum up the season.
Olunga has spent just a single season at Gor Mahia after crossing from Thika United and was instrumental as the side lifted a 15th KPL title without losing a game.
Djurgårdens FC finished the league fifth on the Swedish topflight table with 51 points; fifteen behind eventual winners IF Norrkoping FK.
