LEGENDS TOUR: Former Dortmund star Oliseh set to visit Kenya

Former Super Eagles star Sunday Oliseh. PHOTO: COURTESY

Bundesliga and StarTimes will this December send to Kenya and Nigeria two of Africa’s illustrious footballers to have graced the top-tier German League.

Austin Jay-Jay Okocha, who starred for Eintracht Frankfurt in his formative years will be in Nigeria and Ghana while Sunday Oliseh, who won the German title with Borussia Dortmund will be in Nairobi to promote the Bundesliga.

The tour, dubbed ‘StarTimes &Bundesliga Legends Tour to Africa’ begins on December 16 through to December 22.

Oliseh will be in Kenya between December 20 and December 22. He will appear as an analyst and guest with media partners and hold training sessions with Kenyan football coaches besides meeting with fans.

Jorg Daubitzer, Managing Director of DFL Sports Enterprises, said: “With fans all over the world, we have the duty to take Bundesliga experience out of Germany. Over the last years, activities like the Legends Tour have brought us closer to our supporters, showing them what Bundesliga stands for.

“With the StarTimes & Bundesliga Legends Tour we are enabling fans to get close to two of the biggest African Bundesliga stars of all time and to experience our league at first hand.”

William Masy, Overseas PR Director of StarTimes, told the media: “We are very happy that Jay-Jay and Sunday will join the Legends Tour and I believe that African football fans will enjoy a wonderful week with the two legends shortly before the end of the year.”

StarTimes are the exclusive broadcasters of the German Bundesliga in Sub-Sahara Africa, having signed a five-year deal with the German top-tier league last year.

To kick-start Okocha and Oliseh’s journey back home to Africa, Bundesliga presented the two former stars at the Commerzbank Arena, the home of Eintracht Frankfurt before their clash with Borussia Dortmund yesterday.

Frankfurt, who take pride in Jay-Jay, often replay a short clip of the former Nigeria midfield maestro beating the entire Bayern Munich defence including goalkeeper Oliver Kahn before burying the ball in the net.

After winning the title with Dortmund in 2001/2002 season, Oliseh also went on to play for VFL Bochum and FC Cologne and remains one of the popular African players here in Germany besides Anthony Baffoe (Fortuna Düsseldorf/Ghana), Ibrahim Tanko (Borussia Dortmund/Ghana), Jonathan Akpoborie (Hansa Rostock/Nigeria) among others.

Meanwhile, German top tier league, the Bundesliga, is in a race to expand its viewership around the world especially after the runaway success of the English Premier League.

Bundesliga signed a five-year deal last year with Chinese company StarTimes to transmit live matches across African countries, including Kenya.

StarTimes, however, signed a separate deal with the News Agency of Nigeria. StarTimes also has a partnership with the Nigerian Television Authority.

Since last year, the Bundesliga has been inviting journalists from Africa to Germany to have a feel of its ever-developing league.

This week, six journalists from Africa will have an opportunity to cover the Eintrancht Frankfurt versus Borussia Dortmund (yesterday) and today, watch the fixture between Schalke 04 and SV Darmstadt at Stadium Gelsenkirchen.

The average attendance of Bundesliga matches has been increasing over the years, driven more by improving club standards spurred by television money.

In the 2015/16 season the Borussia Dortmund versus Borussia Mönchengladbach had the highest attendance, with 81,359 fans turning up at Dormund Stadium to watch the tie.

The lowest attendance was when FC Ingolstadt hosted Mainz 05 in which only 13,500 fans turned up.

The average attendance, however, was 43, 309 fans last season. Borussia Dortmund led the way with 81,178 fans on average while Bayern Munich saw 75,000 fans turning up for their matches.

Schalke 04 had 61,386 with Hamburg SV attracting 53,700 on match days.