Forward
Michael Olunga
Club
Djurgårdens IF
League
Sweden
Region
Europe
Signed
2016
Highest transfer fee · January 2021
$7.3m / KSh 800m
Transfer fee, Kashiwa Reysol to Al-Duhail — €6m, at $1.22 to the euro and KSh 109.5 to the dollar.
Profile
Kenya — Tusker and Gor Mahia
The Engineer: a centre-forward who came through Liberty Sports Academy and Tusker, and won the Kenyan league with Gor Mahia in 2015.
Sweden, China and Spain
Djurgårdens IF took him to Sweden the year after, then Guizhou in China, and a loan at Girona where he became the first Kenyan to score in La Liga — with a hat-trick.
Japan — the record season
At Kashiwa Reysol he won the J2 League in 2019, scored eight in a single match, and in 2020 took the J1 League scoring charts with 28 goals in 32 games and its MVP award, the first African to win it.
Qatar
Al-Duhail bought him in 2021: the Qatar Stars League title, the Emir Cup, two Stars Cups and two seasons as the league's leading scorer. More than 350 appearances and over 280 career goals.
Kenya
He captains the Harambee Stars, with 69 caps and 34 goals.
Cup and continental record
With Al-Duhail: the Emir Cup in 2022 and the Qatari Stars Cup in 2022-23 and 2024-25, with AFC Champions League football alongside them. The Copa del Rey with Girona, and the CAF Confederation Cup with Gor Mahia early on.
Managers he played under
Pablo Machín managed him at Girona, where he became the first Kenyan to score in La Liga, and Nelsinho Baptista at Kashiwa Reysol through the J2 title and his 28-goal J1 season. At Al-Duhail he played under Hernán Crespo.
Did you know
The first African to be named the best player in Japan — and eight goals in one match
Twenty-eight goals in 32 matches for Kashiwa Reysol in the 2020 J1 League made Olunga the league's top scorer and its Most Valuable Player: the first African ever to win it. The year before, in a 13-1 win over Kyoto Sanga, he scored eight goals in a single game — a tally that barely exists anywhere in senior professional football.
28
Goals in 32 J1 League matches, 2020
1st
African named J.League MVP
8
Goals in one match, 2019
Did you know
Eight goals in one match, in a 13-1 win
On 24 November 2019, playing for Kashiwa Reysol against Kyoto Sanga, he scored eight times in a single match as his side won 13-1. It stands as one of the largest individual hauls in the professional history of Japanese football, and it came in the season Reysol went up as champions.
8
Goals in a single match
13-1
The final score against Kyoto Sanga
2019
The promotion-winning season
Did you know
A degree in quantity surveying, and an academy in Homa Bay
He came through Kenyan football while completing a degree in geospatial engineering and quantity surveying at the University of Nairobi — the qualification, not the football, was meant to be the career. What he has built with the football sits in Kabondo Kasipul in Homa Bay: an estate at home, and the Michael Olunga Football Academy running training for young players in the county he comes from.
28 goals
The 2020 J1 League Golden Boot
First
African named the league's MVP in Japan
Homa Bay
Where his academy runs
Career record
Harambee Stars captain, now at Al-Arabi SC in the Qatar Stars League after Al-Duhail. More than 285 league appearances and 223 goals across Djurgardens IF, Guizhou Zhicheng, Girona, Kashiwa Reysol, Al-Duhail and Al-Arabi. 69 caps and 34 goals for Kenya. J.League Player of the Year in 2020.
Career appearances and goals reconciled against Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Olunga)
Firsts & milestones
- He is the first Kenyan to be named J.League Player of the Year and to win the J1 League Golden Boot, scoring 28 goals for Kashiwa Reysol in 2020, and the first Kenyan to play in Spain's La Liga after joining Girona in 2018.
Appearances by competition
Career approximations compiled from Transfermarkt and club records
292
Appearances
222
Goals
0
Assists
69
Caps
34
Int'l goals
Listing
Historic Top 20
Archived as part of Kenya's historic professional export record.
See the Hall of Fame Top 20Either side of him in the archive
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