Kenyan international midfielder Victor Wanyama has become the first Kenyan and only the fourth East African player to seal a deal with an English Premier League club. The midfielder has joined Southampton from Scottish Premier League winners Celtic for a record fee of £12.5m; the highest ever received by a Scottish club for a player.
The sale of Aiden McGeady from Celtic to Spartak Moscow for £9.5m was the previous record fee paid for a player from Scottish football. The 21-year-old, who joined Celtic from Belgian club Beerschot for £900,000 two years ago, has agreed a four-year-deal at St Mary’s.
Ugandan born Germany player Savio Nsereko and English born Joel Kitamirike also featured with Westham and Chelsea respectively though they were never capped by Uganda Cranes with the latter just earning a summon. Nevertheless, only Burundi’s Gael Bigirimana claims the record though as he featured for Newcastle last season.
“There were other options, but Southampton is a club with ambitions so I chose to come here.
“Southampton is a good club and it has good players, so I just want to train hard and work hard to be a part of the starting XI. We’ll see where that will take me.
“I’m very grateful to be here and I’m looking forward to playing in the Premier League.”
He scored nine goals last season, including against Barcelona.
Wanyama is Southampton’s second signing of the summer and follows Croatian Dejan Lovren to the club.
Wanyama’s previous teams include JMJ Youth Academy, Nairobi City Stars and AFC Leopards in Kenya and Swedish side Helsingborg in his youth career plus Beerschot and Celtic in his senior career.
Wanyama made his debut for the Kenyan national team in May 2007 aged just 15 in a friendly against Nigeria. He became Kenya’s captain on 8 June 2013.
