His fourth pomp finish against Barcelona FC in the Spanish League bore no clue that the young lad anchored his football career on the dusty football grounds in Kibera Slums in Nairobi. John Alberto Guidetti, the former Manchester City striker who now plies his trade at Spanish club Celta de Vigo once played for Ligi Ndogo. They beat Barcelona 4-1.
According to Ligi Ndogo’s chairman Chris Amimo, Guidetti spent his youthful years in Nairobi with the Ngong’ Road based football development side playing in their under 12 team where he signed in 2004. Amimo says that Guidetti played a number of tournaments till 2005 when the family moved back to Europe.
“His father, used to work at the Sweddish School which is directly opposite Ligi Ndogo grounds. So he found it easy to turn up for all our training sessions,” said Amimo.
Amimo also added that in 2004, the striker was part of the Ligi Ndogo side that participated in the Umbro International Cup in Manchester. “Guidetti was rather young but always made it to the team’s starting line up. He loved playing and could even travel far and wide just to get more playing time with the neighbouring clubs and teams like Black Stars in Kibera,” explained Amimo.