His dream to join one of the biggest teams in football was however shattered by Kenya’s poor performance in the FIFA rankings.
According to him, for one to qualify his country must be ranked among the top 70. However at the time, Kenya was at over 130th position.
He however hoped that things will be different with a better management of the country’s football.
“Ranking inatupiga sana coz I remember 2010 I was supposed to join Manchester City from Parma but we were ranked 130 something and the FIFA rules you qualify when you are top 70 so hapo tulikuwa tumeperform badly but when we have good management hatutakuwa na hizo setbacks player akiwezacheza team yoyote ile akitoka Kenya kama anafaa kuenda kucheza England ama popote pale anaqualify,” Mariga said.
Mariga has now teamed up with Hussein Mohammed as his running mate for the FKF presidency. In an interview with Citizen TV, Mariga said that he was also eyeing the top position but decided to join Hussein.
“Hussein wanted us to be partners. I consulted with my team, his team for many days, months and saw that if we want Kenya to go forward, competition is not important, what we need is change in Kenya’s Football,” the footballer said.
He added that his partnership with Hussein is not about shares or position but the need to return Kenya’s football to where it was.
“Our interest is to ensure Kenya’s football moves forward. We know the management is very bad, right from the Youth Football, Senior up to our league. We don’t run our league professionally,” he said.
Mariga took break from football to pursue politics. He vied for the Kibera MP seat twice but lost to his opponents Imran Okoth(2019) and Peter Orero(2022).
Related;Twice A Loser! What McDonald Mariga Needs To Do To Win Kibra MP Seat Next Time
