Former Gor Mahia coach Kerr's first encounter with witchcraft in South Africa

Baroka FC head coach (former Gor Mahia and Simba SC mentor) Dylan Kerr has recounted his first experience of witchcraft in football as a player.

Kerr, who was appointed Black Leopards coach to replace Joel Masutha in November 2018 after resigning as Gor Mahia's tactician revealed he got the first-ever taste of 'muti' - traditional witchcraft - during his maiden Arcadia Flouride match. 

Kerr had joined Arcadia Flouride in 1988 from Sheffield Wednesday and remained until 1989 and it is at this point, he says, he learned of football witchcraft.

“In my first game we were 2-0 down at half-time, I scored two goals and we won 3-2,” Kerr told Yorkshire Evening Post.
 
“The ‘muti’ man came in and said there you go, it works.”

After a two-year stint at the South African club, the former Simba and Gor Mahia coach returned to Leeds United and played until 1993.

Upon returning to South Africa as a coach, Kerr revealed the circumstances which forced him to resign as Black Leopards head coach despite saving them from what had looked like imminent relegation.

After resigning as K'Ogalo's head coach and having won back-to-back Kenyan Premier League (KPL) titles, Kerr's next stop was at Lidoda Duvha.

A last season win against Cape Town City is all that the former Simba head coach wanted to secure Black Leopards' PSL status even after taking charge of the club for only six months.

“I came back to South Africa and kept the Black Leopards in the Premier League, but my mum was sick and I knew she was dying so I put family before football for the first time ever,” explained the former Exeter and Kilwinning Rangers defender.

Kerr resigned as Black Leopards coach to spend time with his then ill mother Gloria Jean but returned to PSL after accepting Baroka FC's offer.

He replaced Zambian Wedson Nyirenda as Bakgaga Ba Mphahlele's tactician when he agreed to a three-year deal at the start of the current season.

The former defender also shared how his footballing dream was almost shattered when he was released by Leeds United at 18 years of age.

“When I got released at 18 my world ended,” he explained.

“It was my fault, I was out with all the big boys – I thought I’d made it for life with a pro contract at 17 and when it was up, Wilkinson Howard [Leeds United manager] thought I’d not done enough to earn another.

“I wrote 91 letters asking for trials and got seven replies, which I’ve still got, but from each one nothing materialised.

“Michael Hennigan, youth-team coach at Wednesday, had played in South Africa in the 60s. His friend was a manager at Arcadia and asked me to go.”

Apart from Haiphong FC of Vietnam, Kerr has managed mainly African teams in Tanzania, Kenya and South Africa.