{"id":1122,"date":"2020-01-21T14:54:18","date_gmt":"2020-01-21T14:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.com\/kenya\/?p=1122"},"modified":"2020-01-21T14:54:18","modified_gmt":"2020-01-21T14:54:18","slug":"what-you-need-to-know-about-victor-ikpeba-man-set-to-grace-kenyas-soya-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/sport\/what-you-need-to-know-about-victor-ikpeba-man-set-to-grace-kenyas-soya-awards","title":{"rendered":"What you need to know about Victor Ikpeba, man set to grace Kenya\u2019s SOYA awards"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former Africa player of the year Victor Ikpeba will be the chief guest in this year\u2019s\u00a0Safaricom\u00a0Sports Personality of the Year (SOYA) Gala set for Mombasa Sports Club on Friday, January 24.<\/p>\n<p>The former Nigeria Super Eagles star, who was crowned Africa\u2019s finest in 1997, is expected to be in\u00a0Mombasa to hold a series of clinics with the local football sides before attending the gala on Friday night.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m so excited to be returning to Kenya after many years and it\u2019s a great honour to be invited as the chief guest of a sports awards gala in a county that has rich sporting talent like Kenya,\u201d said Ikpeba.<\/p>\n<p>He added: \u201cI have been to Kenya twice, first when we played Harambee Stars in a World Cup qualifier immediately after we won the 1996 Olympics gold medal in Atlanta Georgia and they frustrated us, holding us to a 1-1 draw,&#8221; remembered Ikpeba.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The second time I came in quietly for an Olympic promo in 2012. This time, I will have more time to see the beauty of the country and mingle with some of the world beaters.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>WHO IS VICTOR IKPEBA<\/strong><\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.standardmedia.co.ke\/images\/tuesday\/cfkvav1nazojsb7pu5e26ac330b901.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><figcaption><strong>chief guest in this year\u2019s Safaricom Sports Personality of the Year (SOYA) Gala set for Mombasa Sports Club on Friday, January 2\u00a0<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Victor Nosa Ikpeba was born on June 12, 1973 in Nigeria, Benin City.<\/p>\n<p>He played as a striker for his country, making 31 appearances and scoring seven goals.<\/p>\n<p>Ikpeba\u2019s talent was realized at the early age, as Belgian club RFC Liege snapped him up during the FIFA under-17 World Championship in 1989.<\/p>\n<p>He moved to Monaco after scoring 17 goals at the age of 20. Caoached by ex-Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger at the time, Ikpeba slowly started developing into a fine footballer, scoring 13 goals, contributing massively to the club\u2019s league triumph.<\/p>\n<p>He finished second on the scoring charts in the 1996\/97 UEFA Cup.<\/p>\n<p>He was named African Footballer of the Year in 1997.<\/p>\n<p>He moved to Borussia Dortmund on the eve of the 21<sup>st<\/sup>\u00a0century, joining compatriot Sunday oliseh. However, his time at Dortmund was marred with inconsistency. He scored only two goals in his first season for the Bundesliga club. Reports of his fallout with coach Matthias Sammer emerged, consequently seeing him move to Spanish outfit Real Betis on a season-long loan. He made only three appearances for them.<\/p>\n<p>In 2002, he signed for Libyan side Al-Ittihad but failed to see his contract out, quitting the team over financial differences.<\/p>\n<p>He returned to Belgium after nearly a year off the pitch, signing for Charleroi. He scored 5 goals in 15 appearances for the club.<\/p>\n<p>Before retiring from football, Ikpeba had short spells with Qatari-based side Al-Sadd.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Africa player of the year Victor Ikpeba will be the chief guest in this year\u2019s\u00a0Safaricom\u00a0Sports Personality of the Year (SOYA) Gala set for Mombasa Sports Club on Friday, January 24. The former Nigeria Super Eagles star, who was crowned Africa\u2019s finest in 1997, is expected to be in\u00a0Mombasa to hold a series of clinics [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":1123,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,17],"tags":[682,679,680,681],"class_list":["post-1122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-sport","tag-safaricom-sports-personality-of-the-year","tag-soya","tag-soya-awards","tag-victor-ikpeba"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>What you need to know about Victor Ikpeba, man set to grace Kenya\u2019s SOYA awards - kenya<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former Africa player of the year Victor Ikpeba will be the chief guest in this year\u2019s\u00a0Safaricom\u00a0Sports Personality of the Year (SOYA) Gala\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/sport\/what-you-need-to-know-about-victor-ikpeba-man-set-to-grace-kenyas-soya-awards\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What you need to know about Victor Ikpeba, man set to grace Kenya\u2019s SOYA awards\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former Africa player of the year Victor Ikpeba will be the chief guest in this year\u2019s\u00a0Safaricom\u00a0Sports Personality of the Year (SOYA) Gala\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/sport\/what-you-need-to-know-about-victor-ikpeba-man-set-to-grace-kenyas-soya-awards\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"kenya\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-01-21T14:54:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/sites\/28\/2020\/01\/wxyfypibw49lgp1rw5e26ac10d37c9.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/sport\/what-you-need-to-know-about-victor-ikpeba-man-set-to-grace-kenyas-soya-awards#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/sport\/what-you-need-to-know-about-victor-ikpeba-man-set-to-grace-kenyas-soya-awards\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"What you need to know about Victor Ikpeba, man set to grace Kenya\u2019s SOYA awards\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-01-21T14:54:18+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/sport\/what-you-need-to-know-about-victor-ikpeba-man-set-to-grace-kenyas-soya-awards\"},\"wordCount\":458,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/sport\/what-you-need-to-know-about-victor-ikpeba-man-set-to-grace-kenyas-soya-awards#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/sites\/28\/2020\/01\/wxyfypibw49lgp1rw5e26ac10d37c9.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Safaricom Sports Personality of the Year\",\"SOYA\",\"SOYA AWARDS\",\"Victor Ikpeba\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/sport\/what-you-need-to-know-about-victor-ikpeba-man-set-to-grace-kenyas-soya-awards#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/sport\/what-you-need-to-know-about-victor-ikpeba-man-set-to-grace-kenyas-soya-awards\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/sport\/what-you-need-to-know-about-victor-ikpeba-man-set-to-grace-kenyas-soya-awards\",\"name\":\"What you need to know about Victor Ikpeba, man set to grace Kenya\u2019s SOYA awards - 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