Gor Mahia custodian Levis Opiyo has moved to terminate his stay with the club over salary arrears.
Opiyo arrived at the Kenyan Premier League (KPL) champions from promoted side Nairobi City Stars at the start of the 2020-21 season, and was seen as a direct replacement for Peter Odhiambo, who left K’Ogalo to sign for Wazito FC.
However, despite joining the club, Opiyo is yet to start for the team this season with his only meaningful contribution coming in the Caf Champions League match against APR of Rwanda, where he was handed a bench role after veteran Boniface Oluoch was ruled out after suffering from malaria.
A source within K’Ogalo has now told Goal Opiyo, who has decided to terminate his contract, has already written to the club asking to move on.
“Opiyo has terminated his contract with Gor Mahia because he feels he cannot wait any longer to ask for his salary,” the source, who did not want to be named told Goal.
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“He has been asking for his pay including the sign-on fee but it seems they are not ready to pay him so he has decided to officially leave the club.”
Gor Mahia have had a turbulent season as they are yet to pay players for close to five months and in recent times, the players have been staging go-slows to demand their pay.
The most recent incident happened during the return leg of the Champions League clash against CR Belouizdad, where players refused to honour the game but they were prevailed upon by the officials at the last moment but ended up losing 2-1 to exit the competition on an 8-1 aggregate scoreline.
Despite being eliminated from the Champions League, they received a lifeline as they will take part in the Confederation Cup, where they will face Napsa Stars of Zambia in the playoff round, with the first leg planned for Nairobi on February 14.
On the local front, Gor Mahia have started the season on a poor note, managing one win from three matches, the latest being a 4-3 defeat against Kariobangi Sharks at Kasarani Stadium on Sunday.
Gor Mahia had also lost 2-1 to Tusker FC after beating Ulinzi Stars 2-1 in their season opener played at Nyayo Stadium.
On Sunday, the club confirmed the appointment of Portuguese coach Carlos Manuel Vaz Pinto, who will replace Brazilian Roberto Oliveira.
On taking charge, the 47-year-old promised to help the team retain the league title and also reach the group stage of the Confederation Cup.
“I have a lot of experience in Africa. I worked before in two countries, Angola and Ethiopia I played Confederation Cup and Champions League and now I come to Gor Mahia because they are a big club,” Pinto told reporters after being unveiled.
“I am very proud to be the coach of Gor Mahia and of course I want to achieve big things and make history with the club. We start to work very hard to win games in the league and put Gor Mahia in the group stage of the Confederation Cup, that is my target here.”
On what he targets to achieve with the team, Pinto explained: “I am a young and ambitious coach and I want my team to be ambitious, we must be ready to achieve goals and we must achieve our targets, I am ambitious and I want my team to be ambitious, to fight in every game, win every game and win trophies as well.”
Gor Mahia will next face Mathare United on Thursday.
