For the better part of the week, former Kenyan international footballer Dennis Oliech was a hot subject of debate due to his waning fortunes.
Many questioned why he ended up living an average life yet he made a lot of money years back when he was playing football in the Gulf.
Some brought up a Ksh890 million offer he got in 2004 to change his nationality from a Kenyan to a Qatari but he chose his motherland over and above everything else.
It is then that Oliech, for the first time, came clean and asked Kenyans to spare him the bile saying that his mother and brother’s sickness left him drained.
He told Mozzart Bet in a recent interview that his late mother’s illness, Mary Auma Oliech left him financially drained.
He added that his brother Kevin Oliceh who was batting cancer also left him with a heavy financial burden that forced him to sell off assets he had bought at the peak of his international football career.
“I was doing this to treat my mother and brother. My mother’s hospital bill came to around Ksh40 million and we had to pay around Ksh84 million for Kevin’s bill,” he said adding “you cannot hold on to an asset and your relatives are ill and need your help.”
Soon after, the former Auxerre FC legend asked fellow Kenyan footballers to make better financial decisions and invest wisely.
He urged football players not to wait and make millions of money to invest because this will never happen.
“Invest with the little you have, don’t wait for that big break that might never happen,” he said in a different interview with Jeff Kinyanjui.
He added that his decision to move from Europe to the Gulf was the worst he made in a lifetime because it ‘finished’ his football career.
He urged Kenyan players to avoid looking the other way to the Gulf if they are playing for European leagues lest they suffer the same fate as he did.
“My career took a hit when I moved from Ajax and went to Dubai. That is where I bid goodbye to Europe’s limelight. I wish I remained at Ajax and played second or third division. I really blundered leaving Ajax to Dubai.”
