8-Year-Old Kenyan Boy Joins Prestigious Manchester City Football Academy

Former Kenya rugby star Lucas Onyango is a proud father after his son Aymen Onyango joined the prestigious Manchester City Academy.

An elated Onyango took to Twitter recently to announce that Aymen, 8, had signed for Manchester City’s U9 team, attributing this to hard work. 

"Our son Aymen Lucas Onyango is now officially a Manchester City player after signing for the Under 9’s. In my life, I have never been this proud, and this boy has worked hard to get here. The journey begins now that he has progressed through the academy. We are all over the moon," he tweeted.

Onyango, who was born and raised in Kenya played for the University of Nairobi’s Mean Machine RFC and the Kenya sevens national team, Shujaa.

He represented the country at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in England after which he signed for Manchester RFC before settling with his family in the UK. He then switched international allegiance and played for England until his retirement.

“I left home because the opportunities were not there. We came for the Commonwealth Games, we knew we were good enough but the environment back home was not conducive for us to make it,” Onyango said in an interview.

Onyango, who holds a master’s degree in sports science, says his son had trials in different clubs in England before settling for Manchester City as they offered the best deal.

“City is one of the best academies right now. We were at Liverpool, we were at United (Manchester) and every academy has its positives and negatives. But I always believe with sports, it is a matter of where the child is comfortable, and Aymen was comfortable at City and that’s how we let it be,” he said.

He is convinced that Aymen will succeed and go on to shine at Manchester City and wants him to play for Kenya when he comes of age. 

“Aymen is one person who is never scared of working hard…This journey started three years ago, and it is just now when he signed for Man City that we let Kenyans and the world know because it will motivate other kids back at home,” he said.

“They get the best training. They have played Arsenal, Chelsea, all the other teams and they have beaten them all. They have a very good set up and the kids are well taken care of, and that’s the most important thing.”