Doreen Nabwire
Nabwire in Amsterdam in 2013
Personal information
Full name Doreen Nabwire Omondi
Date of birth (1987-03-05) 5 March 1987
Place of birth Korogocho, Nairobi, Kenya
Height 1.65 m (5 ft 5 in)
Position(s) Midfielder
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2002–2008 Mathare United Women
2009–2010 Werder Bremen 18 (7)
2010–2011 PEC Zwolle 16 (1)
2011–2013 Matuu FC (4)
2013–2014 1. FC Köln 1 (0)
2013–2014 1. FC Köln II 6 (1)
International career
2001–2016 Kenya
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Doreen Nabwire Omondi (born 5 March 1987), nicknamed "Dodo",[1][2] is a Kenyan former footballer. In 2009, Nabwire became the first Kenyan woman to play professional football in Europe.[3] She also played and served as captain of the Kenya women's national football team. She played for FC Zwolle in de Eredivisie Vrouwen from 2010 to 2011.[3]

Since 2016, she has been working as the Women's Football Development Officer and Director of Women's football for the Football Kenya Federation.

Nabwire co-founded a Community Based Organization (CBO) called Girls Unlimited in 2009, which uses a variety of sports to nurture and develop youths' talents to bring social change and development in communities in Kenya.

Club career

Early career

“My mother believed that it's a man's game and did not want me to play,” Nabwire said. “I tried to do all my chores so I could play but she would say to me: ‘No Doreen you're not going anywhere’. One day we were due to play in a quarter-final match, I asked the whole team to come home and persuade her. They all came, but my mom said: ‘No.

Dooren Nabwire on restrictions from her mother[4]

Born in Ngomongo estate in Korogocho and grew up in Mathare Valley, one of Nairobi's largest slums,[3] Doreen Nabwire grew up with her five siblings and parents. She attended Valley Bridge Primary School in Huruma and Maina Wanjigi High School in Eastleigh.[5]

She started playing football on the streets at the age of ten and was discovered by players who noticed her talent and told her about a project being run by the Nobel Peace Prize nominated[6] Mathare Youth Sports Association (MYSA) with the aim of empowering young people through football.[4] She wanted to join the women's team of Mathare United, but she was held back by her mother who felt that women were not meant to play football.[7] She was later allowed to join the North Villas, a football club in MYSA after her father intervened.[5]

MYSA was being supported by the Norway Cup, the largest youth football tournament in the world which attracted over 1,000 teams.[5] She was invited to trials for the MYSA team in 1998 and she made the team ahead of the tournament. From then onward, she was part of the team in three consecutive trips to the competition as a teenager.[7] In 1999, she took part in the tournament for the first time with the U-14 team and later won in 2000 and 2001 as captain.[3][8]

She was promoted to the senior women's Mathare team where she played from 2002 to 2009.[2]

Werder Bremen, 2009–2010

Nabwire joined SV Werder Bremen[9] in the German second division in 2009.[7][10] On 27 September 2009, during her debut during the opening match of the season, she scored a brace to take Bremen to 2–2 draw against Hamburger SV II. Her goal made her the first player to score for Werder Bremen in the 2. Bundesliga.[11][12]

During her one-year period with the Bremen-based club she scored seven goals in eighteen games.[13]

Zwolle, 2010–2011

She was voted as the second best player of the team by the fans. In the summer of 2010, she transferred to PEC Zwolle in the Netherlands, who joined the Eredivisie Women that year. On 30 September 2010, she made her debut in a 3–0 loss to ADO Den Haag.[14] The following league match on 4 October 2010, she scored her debut goal in a 3–2 loss to FC Utrecht.[15] She only stayed for one season, played 16 matches and scored one goal before returning to her native Kenya.[16] Whilst in playing for Zwolle, she studied and earned the professional UEFA C coaching license.[17]

MOYAS and Matuu FC, 2011–2013

She returned to Kenya in July 2011 and joined MOYAS FC as a player coach and helped them to win the Kenya Super 8 League that year.[18][19] She later joined Matuu FC and won the 2012 Kenyan Women's Premier League. In 2013, she became assistant coach of MOYAS FC.[20]

1. FC Köln, 2013–2014

In November 2013, she returned to Germany for the 2013–2014 season, to sign for 1. FC Köln who were then in the second division.[21] She played her only match for the club on 1 December 2013 when she was substituted in the 84th minute in the 2–1 loss to eventual league winners SC Sand.[22] In February 2014, she suffered a ruptured achilles tendon which ended her season and her club career in Europe.[23][4]

International career

In 2006, she was a member of the squad that represented Kenya in the first ever Street Football World Cup in 2006 held in Berlin, Germany, leading them to the title.[24][25][2] It was this tournament that exposed her to Europe and gave her the opportunity to feature for international clubs.[26] In 2006, she captained the Kenya under-20 against Nigeria and also played in matches against Djibouti and Cameroon.[5]

Senior national team

Nabwire played for the Kenya women's national football team and served as the skipper at one point.[27][28] She made her debut for the team in 2001 at the age of 15 in a friendly match against Ethiopia, where she played 70 minutes before being taken off.[4] In 2016, she doubled as a player and team manager for the team.[1][29][30] She served in that role in September 2016 at the 2016 CECAFA Women's Championship where Kenya lost to Tanzania in the finals.[1][31]

She was part of the Harambee Starlets squad that qualified for the 2016 Africa Women Cup of Nations (AWCON) in Cameroon for the first time in the country's history.[1]

Life after football

Managerial career

After retiring from playing football, Nabwire continued her involvement in football. She worked as a coach, whilst working with NGOs to improve women's football in Kenya. She also worked with a Premier League team.[32]

From 2010 to 2011, whilst playing for FC Zwolle, she obtained the UEFA-C coaching license at the Landstede Sportcentrum in Zwolle.[8] After returning to Kenya from the Netherlands, she became a trainer at the Nairobi-based National Youth Talent Academy. Nabwire also worked as a Player-coach specifically as an assistant coach for Matuu FC, which he helped in securing the 2012 Kenyan Women's Premier League.[20] In March 2013, she left Matuu and worked as a trainer of FKF Girls Premier League club MOYAS Ladies.[20]

Since 2016 she has been the team manager of the Kenyan women's national team Harambee Starlets, which qualified for the finals of the Africa Cup for the first time in April 2016.[1] She currently holds the CAF B License after under going the CAF training course in September 2020 in Kenya.[33][34]

Football Kenya Federation

Since 2016, she had been holding a key administrative role at the Football Kenya Federation including working as the Women's Football Development Officer and Director of Women's football.[35] With this, her role includes, heading the women's desk at the federation, managing and running the Women's leagues and developing and implementing grassroots women football activities.[32][36][35] She also doubles as the Football Kenya Federation (FKF)'s Deputy Competitions Manager.[37][38] In July 2021, she led the federation to launch a women's football strategy to grow women's football in Kenya.[39]

FIFA

In November 2019, Nabwire was one of the 24 women from FIFA's 211 member associations who graduated from the FIFA-UEFA Women in Football Leadership Programme.[32] In October 2021, she was appointed unto FIFA's technical advisory group on the growth and advancement of women's football.[40][41] The grouped is headed by Jill Ellis and has fellow African Asisat Oshoala also as a member.[41]

Personal life

Family life

Nabwire comes from a footballing family. She is the third of a family of six. Her brother Eric Johana Omondi plays for Jönköpings Södra and previously played for Mathare United, while Felix Oucho also played for Mathare United and is currently a coach at a club in Busia. Her other brother, Anthony Kadudu featured for Tusker FC whilst her younger sister, Christine Nafula is a footballer who plays for the Kenya women's national team.[1][8][42] She has three sons.[1][2]

Girls Unlimited

In 2009, she co-founded Girls Unlimited, a Community Based Organization (CBO) which uses a variety of sports including football, tennis, volleyball and netball to nurture and develop youths' talents to bring social change and development in communities in Kenya.[43][3] The organization targets girls in primary and secondary schools within Kenyan communities and empowers them by teaching life skills, decision making and ways to improve their confidence.[21][44][8][18] Since 2015, the organization has been organizing an annual women's football tournament dubbed the Dada Football Tournament to promote women's football in Kenya.[45]

Other activities

Nabwire is an avid Manchester United fan.[5] A documentary of her life titled Dodo – between corrugated iron and the world stage – (“Zwischen Wellblech und Weltbühne”) by German journalist and documentary filmmaker Herbert Ostwald was released in 2009 at the 6th International Football Film Festival 11mm in Berlin. Excerpts of the documentary were shown on Deutsche Welle.[25][46] Nabwire published her autobiography in January 2011, titled Traumpass which was co-authored with Herbert Ostwald.[47][48]

Nabwire holds a diploma in Tours, Travel, and Cabin Crew and has worked at the Phoenix Safaris, Kenya in the past.[8]

Career statistics

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League
DivisionAppsGoals
Werder Bremen 2009–10[13] 2. Bundesliga 187
FC Zwolle 2010–11[16] Eredivisie 161
1. FC Köln 2013–14 2. Bundesliga 10
Total 358

Honours

MYSA

  • Norway Cup U14: 2000, 2001[3]

MOYAS

  • Kenya Super 8 League: 2011[19]

Matuu FC

Kenya

Individual

  • Norway Cup U14 Best Player: 2000, 2001[3]
  • Magharibi Michezo Awards Football Personality of the Decade: 2018[50]

Awards and recognition

In 2007, Nabwire was selected as Kenya's Football for Hope Ambassador and served as a representative for her country during the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.[26]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Anyango, Shania (16 June 2017). "Germans gave me a car and pocket money – Doreen 'Dodo' Nabwire, Kenya's only female professional footballer". The Standard. Archived from the original on 22 October 2021. Retrieved 22 October 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Ostwald, Herbert (3 October 2008). "Doreen Nabwire aus Kenia im Portrait". Fan Soccer. Archived from the original on 4 October 2008. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Kuipers, Maaike (17 December 2019). "'Mijn voetbalteam moest m'n moeder overtuigen'". #zijspeeltmee (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 13 August 2020. Retrieved 25 October 2021.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "Doreen Nabwire's journey from Nairobi to the Bundesliga". Fédération Internationale des Associations de Footballeurs Professionnels (FIFPro). 27 August 2021. Archived from the original on 2 September 2021. Retrieved 24 October 2021.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Wasonga, Edwin (6 June 2010). "Doreen Nabwire's Journey". Kicking AIDS Out. Archived from the original on 24 July 2011. Retrieved 25 October 2021.
  6. ↑ "Kevin Mitchell: The Pope, Bono and... Mathare United FC". the Guardian. 4 October 2003. Retrieved 9 November 2021.
  7. 1 2 3 "Werder supports Kenyan Doreen Nabwire for one year". SV Werder Bremen. 25 September 2009. Archived from the original on 22 October 2021. Retrieved 22 October 2021.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 Amondi, Agnes (4 August 2021). "Doreen Nabwire's Rise To Football's High Table". YAZA Kenya. Archived from the original on 4 August 2021. Retrieved 25 October 2021.
  9. ↑ Amondi, Agnes (3 September 2020). "Why More Kenyan Players Have Secured Moves Abroad". Her Football Hub. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
  10. ↑ "Kenyan Girl Signs For Werder Bremen's Female Team | Goal.com". www.goal.com. Retrieved 22 October 2021.
  11. ↑ "Werder Bremen vs. Hamburger SV II – 27 September 2009". Soccerway. 27 September 2009. Archived from the original on 25 October 2021. Retrieved 25 October 2021.
  12. ↑ Heidler, Christian. "Doreen Nabwire verstärkt Werder Bremen". Fan Soccer (in German). Archived from the original on 29 September 2009. Retrieved 25 October 2021.
  13. 1 2 "Frauenfußball 2. Bundesliga Nord Saison 2009/2010". www.fansoccer.de. Retrieved 23 October 2021.
  14. ↑ "ADO Den Haag vs. PEC Zwolle Match Report". Soccerway. 30 September 2010. Archived from the original on 12 August 2021. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
  15. ↑ "Utrecht vs. PEC Zwolle Match Report". Soccerway. 4 October 2010. Archived from the original on 12 August 2021. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
  16. 1 2 "VrouwenvoetbalNederland.NL – Spelersinfo – Doreen Nabwire". VrouwenVoetbalNederland. Archived from the original on 18 December 2013. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
  17. ↑ "Nabwire: Football was my stepping stone to a better life". www.fifa.com. Retrieved 22 October 2021.
  18. 1 2 Machio, Dennis (19 July 2011). "Doreen Nabwire is back home after career in Europe". Michezo Afrika. Archived from the original on 22 July 2011. Retrieved 23 October 2021.
  19. 1 2 Machio, Dennis (31 July 2011). "MOYAS take home Super 8 womens' [sic] title". Michezo Afrika. Archived from the original on 9 August 2011. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
  20. 1 2 3 4 Korir, Patrick (7 March 2013). "Nabwire appointed MOYAS Coach". Futaa. Archived from the original on 23 October 2021. Retrieved 23 October 2021.
  21. 1 2 Dennis, Machio (31 October 2013). "Kenyan International joins German side FC Köln". Michezo Afrika. Archived from the original on 4 November 2013. Retrieved 25 October 2021.
  22. ↑ "Köln vs. SC Sand – 1 December 2013". Soccerway. Archived from the original on 25 October 2021. Retrieved 25 October 2021.
  23. ↑ "Les rêves de Nabwire pour le football féminin kényan". Confedération Africaine du Football (CAF) (in French). 27 July 2020. Archived from the original on 31 July 2020. Retrieved 23 October 2021.
  24. ↑ "Mathare Youth Sports Association (Mysa) Wins Street Football World Cup – 2006". Kenya Embassy Berlin. 9 September 2006. Archived from the original on 25 October 2021. Retrieved 25 October 2021.
  25. 1 2 Schwarz, Laura Marallo (12 October 2009). "MYSA player lives her dream at Werder Bremen". Street Football World. Archived from the original on 25 December 2010. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
  26. 1 2 Natiom, Lokeder (19 October 2021). "Doreen Nabwire appointed to Fifa Advisory group". Nation Africa. Archived from the original on 19 October 2021. Retrieved 24 October 2021.
  27. ↑ "Former Harambee Starlets captain Doreen Nabwire lands FIFA appointment". The Standard. 19 October 2021. Archived from the original on 19 October 2021. Retrieved 25 October 2021.
  28. ↑ Ujerumani, Mkenya (17 October 2013). "Kenyan Football Captain Coming to Germany to Encourage more Girls to Take up Football". Mkenya Ujerumani. Archived from the original on 9 June 2013. Retrieved 25 October 2021.
  29. ↑ Avilia, Cherise (30 July 2016). "Starlets squad for Spain tour released". SuperSport. Archived from the original on 31 July 2016. Retrieved 22 October 2021.
  30. ↑ Makhandia, Agnes (11 November 2016). "Starlets focused: Nabwire says early arrival in Cameroon gives them an edge". Press Reader. The Star (Kenya). Archived from the original on 22 October 2021. Retrieved 22 October 2021.
  31. ↑ "Tanzania beats Kenya's harambee Starlets to win Cecafa Women's Championship". CECAFA. Council for East and Central Africa Football Associations. 23 September 2016. Archived from the original on 24 September 2016. Retrieved 23 October 2021.
  32. 1 2 3 "Nabwire: Football was my stepping stone to a better life". Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). 22 December 2019. Archived from the original on 25 October 2021. Retrieved 22 October 2021.
  33. ↑ Mballa, Tony (7 September 2021). "Caf roll out inaugural 'B' coaching license in Kenya". The Star. Archived from the original on 22 October 2021. Retrieved 22 October 2021.
  34. ↑ Ng’ang’a, Joseph (8 September 2021). "CAF B License coaching course ongoing". Kenya News Agency. Archived from the original on 25 September 2021. Retrieved 22 October 2021.
  35. 1 2 "Une nouvelle ère pour le football féminin au Kenya". Confedération Africaine du Football (CAF) (in French). 29 July 2021. Archived from the original on 27 October 2021. Retrieved 25 October 2021.
  36. ↑ "Nabwire steering Kenya's global success drive". Confedération Africaine du Football (CAF). 27 July 2020. Archived from the original on 25 October 2021. Retrieved 24 October 2021.
  37. ↑ "Nabwire steering Kenya's global success drive". Confedération Africaine du Football (CAF). 27 July 2020. Archived from the original on 28 July 2020. Retrieved 22 October 2021.
  38. ↑ Willis, Seth (28 July 2020). "Harambee Starlets will soon play in FIFA World Cup – Nabwire". Goal. Archived from the original on 22 October 2021. Retrieved 22 October 2021.
  39. ↑ "Football Kenya Federation launches women football strategy". Football Kenya Federation. 14 July 2021. Archived from the original on 14 July 2021. Retrieved 25 October 2021.
  40. ↑ Dia, Jules (20 October 2021). "Nomination: l'ancienne internationale kenyane, Doreen Nabwire, intègre le groupe FIFA Advisory". Sport News Africa (in French). Retrieved 22 October 2021.
  41. 1 2 "Technical Advisory Group to focus on growth and advancement of women's football". Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). 18 October 2021. Archived from the original on 18 October 2021. Retrieved 25 October 2021.
  42. ↑ Aseka, Laureen (13 December 2020). "Doreen Nabwire Exclusive : From the Slums to Stardom in Europe". Tisini. Archived from the original on 13 December 2020. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
  43. ↑ "Empowerment Through Soccer". USC Center on Public Diplomacy. 24 November 2015. Archived from the original on 26 November 2015. Retrieved 25 October 2021.
  44. ↑ "Sammelaktion für das Projekt "Girls Unlimited": Container in Nairobi angekommen". Fußball-Verband Mittelrhein (in German). 4 September 2016. Archived from the original on 25 October 2021. Retrieved 25 October 2021.
  45. ↑ "GALLERY: Otto edge past PKF to retain Dada Football title". JWsports1. 31 December 2017. Archived from the original on 6 July 2019. Retrieved 25 October 2021.
  46. ↑ "Zwischen Wellblech und Weltbühne". www.11-mm.de. 11MM. Archived from the original on 26 October 2021. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
  47. ↑ Iselt, von Dagmar (10 August 2011). "Traumpass von Doreen Nabwire – Literaturportal AfrikaRoman". AfrikaRoman (in German). Archived from the original on 6 August 2020. Retrieved 25 October 2021.
  48. ↑ Nabwire, Doreen; Ostwald, Herbert (2011). Traumpass: mein Weg aus den Slums von Nairobi auf die Fussballplätze Europas (in German). VGS Egmont. ISBN 978-3-8025-3716-5.
  49. ↑ "Kenya Reigns Supreme in World Street Soccer Challenge". Deutsche Welle (DW). 9 September 2006. Archived from the original on 25 October 2021. Retrieved 25 October 2021.
  50. ↑ Eshitemi, Rodgers (23 December 2018). "Injera, Shikhalo and Nabwire feted at Magharibi Michezo Awards". The Standard. Archived from the original on 22 October 2021. Retrieved 22 October 2021.
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