The Audacity of Dreams: This is the story of Emmanuel ‘Otis’ Pala

“I like how football fans and critics never consider player variables. This game is not easy, especially the higher you go. Nobody wants to lose because we train hard every day. Yes, we are professional players but we are human at the same time and s**t can go wrong too,” posts a clearly irked Emmanuel Otieno Pala – a player who has featured for Football Kenya Premier League side Posta Rangers, former second-tier side Nairobi Stima and who is currently stationed at National Super League side Dandora Love.

From starting out in his neighbourhood area of Lang’ata at the tender age of only 10 years old, Pala, who is now 28 years, has punched over and above his weight in forging through the footballing echelons from the lowest leagues locally all the way to playing in England and the South Asian nation of Nepal. But it was not easy getting there.

His foundation – mum and dad – were not footballing people. They are bookworms to the core. So, when Pala floated the idea of pursuing professional football as a career, they just laughed it off, flipped a cover on one of the voracious reads they had and told him to get serious with his life. Because what more can African PhD holders want their son to do, if not try and emulate them?

Pala, stubborn as he is, did not listen. Because if he did, he would not be here, telling us about the journey. This is his story, of series and series of immeasurable highs but constant bouts of disappointments and heartbreak. From almost making it in pursuing his dream abroad but never realizing it.

Through it all, Pala lived. Although he is back in the country now and still actively involved in the lower divisions of the game, he is just reaping the many lessons football sowed in him despite the fact that his foreign stints pretty much never worked out or did not go on as much as he would have liked.

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Starting Out

At the time, he was just around ten. Growing up in Lang’ata and enjoying ‘ajuala’ football in the affluent estates. But then, he had a cousin who took him to an academy called Ligi Ndogo where the footballing fire in him was sparked.

“Yes I loved football, but I did not have any mentor growing up. You see the way someone can be mentored education wise? I did not have anyone close to guide me. So when, I heard my cousin knew of a place we could play football, I just blindly followed him over there without hesitation,” Pala reveals to Mozzart Sport.

At this time, a young and determined Pala was just in primary school. Very eager to play the game.

Eat football, drink football, sleep football! That is all he thought about. After completing his primary education, his determination and resolve would be put to the test very early in his next phase of life.

But before encountering his first challenges, Pala had already gotten a taste of the unimaginable highs that come with football at the age of 12 where he got the chance of featuring in the East African school tournaments held in Uganda and Kenya.

These two tournaments had sides from Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. Remarkably, Pala’s team got to the finals in both tournaments. Unfortunately, they never got to become the champions on both occasions. However, Pala managed to win the top scorer award in the Kenyan edition that took place in 2006 after amassing seven goals.

Being crowned the best among his peers not just in Kenya alone but in the entire East African zone, was a sign of the potential that was yet to be unearthed in him. That moment, splashed on the back pages of magazines was quite an early crest in his budding career. Only that it would be quickly hit with a trough just immediately upon completion of his primary education in 2007.

His secondary education had taken him to Karengata High School in Karen, Nairobi where for the first time his footballing dream felt threatened as the two became isolated.

“When I joined high school, I went to a boarding and that forced me to stop going to the academy. From there, my footballing journey took an unprecedented low because even the school itself did not care much about sporting activities. I was in the school team yes but still my game slowed down so much during those four years,” Pala sadly reminisces.

And just as time flies, Pala completed his secondary education within no time. Inside, he clearly knew school was not going to be his thing. His parents, though, were not letting up.

Despite not attaining the cut off grades to join university education, they insisted that he must start with the bridging courses as he progressed upwards,. A course the youngster was not willing to chart going forward. After a long tussle that, according to Pala, there would only be one winner, his parents, especially mom, threw in the towel after their boy proved so determined to go against their wishes.

Early football days

Pala, together with a couple of friends, made the decision to come up with their own team. Due to their passion for the game, a lack of connections or teams would not stop them from venturing into football. They came up with initiatives to form their own club to start off their amateur careers.

“Funny enough, we started our own team with a couple of other friends who we just used to enjoy football but we never had any connections whatsoever or mentors. So we just took it upon ourselves and decided that we come together, get a coach and then register to join the league. We pulled resources, bought kits, registered the team - named it Phoenix FC (like the bird that reawakens from the dead) -, got a coach and that is how we started the league, in the last division, at the time known as sub-county,” he recalls.

During one of these friendly games with his Phoenix side at camp Toyoyo, Pala would grace his first encounter with a chance to go out of the country.

“I was 19 at the time and I really wanted to realize my dream of turning pro. After one friendly match, I approached one of the coaches there who had played in Nepal before. After seeing what I was able to do on the pitch, added with my visible appetite, he helped me get in contact with the clubs he played for in Nepal. He organized trials for me and I was supposed to facilitate everything going there on my own,” he stated.

However, being unable to support himself, Pala had to go back to his parents whom he opposed, remember?

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But parents being parents, with their ever undying love, softened up and catered for his needs and Pala got to travel to Nepal within a month. 

A chance that was supposed to be somewhat of a fairy tale and a dreamed start to his career ended up in rejection and disappointments in the South Asian country.

“In six months, I had done trials at three different clubs and all of them did not like me,” Pala says while laughing at the time.

Deep down, the striker turned defender knew how big a hit that was to his pursuit. But he immediately understood why.

“There were so many West Africans over there who were so much better than me. I felt really bad that I was rejected but on the flipside it hit me how hard it is to make it to pro football. Honestly at that time, considering I was as green as they come, it was really hard. In terms of development, I had not fully developed my game to compete with them. So I failed all the three trials,” he says.

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“I was told I’m not good,” he remembers, with balancing tears I presume.

Pala’s parents knew their son was playing in Nepal. But after refusing to go the school route, there was no way he was going to tell his parents that after only one month, he had been kicked out and that for the next five months he was no longer attached to any club.

There was no way his parents would pull the ‘we told you card on him’, so he kept lying that he was impressing when all he did was the exact opposite.

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“After one month, the club I went to try out with stopped supporting me because I failed the trials. So for the remaining five months I used to lie back at home that they had been impressed with me. I was just now playing for fun with a team in the estates. I wake up in the morning, go to training, play, then go back home. Just like that for five months,” until his six month visa expired.

After his failed stint, Pala went back to Phoenix – his drawing board - where he shared his failed experience with his closest mates. He did not lie to them however. He just hit them with the dreaded reality of how hard it is was of making the cut into professional football- you hard to be good!

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Midway through the season, Lang’ata Gremio signed him from Phoenix. After helping Gremio to promotion into the regional league by scoring six goals in an unfamiliar striking position, being that he is naturally a defender, Pala got another opportunity to go outside again, this time in the United Kingdom.

“In all my playing time, I have always played as a defender. But the Gremio coach approached me to plug the gap that was in the striking department. Although I knew his idea of shifting me to the striking position was crazy, I agreed to try. Believe it or not, I ended that season with six goals and we got promotion to the regionals,” the player says.

Within this promotion Pala got his second opportunity.

“I always wanted to go pro,” he reiterates. “I was linked to a private academy academy in the UK and after they saw my videos they told me that they could give me a half scholarship on the basis of developing me,” an excited Pala remembers.

Compared to the Nepal trials, the UK opportunity was extremely extravagant in terms of affordability. The academy agreed to cater for half of the expenses while Pala was expected to cater for the other half and pay it upfront. His parents thought paying one million was crazy, but still, where would we be were it not for our parents? This time though, Pala needed not to do so much convincing.

“At the time, my parents had started giving in to my proposal because people who had seen me had started telling them that I was good at playing. So my parents really sacrificed and fortunately they managed to pay.”

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In the UK, Pala would sign with 7th tier sides and ninth tier sides such as Boston, Kettering Town and Northampton Silby where he played for half a season. But it was at Silby where he felt like a star.

“You know most under-23 games do not have many spectators. They are normally around 100 maximum. But at Silby, fans used to reach upto 500 or even 600. It was an actual following for me. If I’m not included in the squad the fans would ask why. The love I got over there made me feel totally in a different atmosphere. It was one of the best experiences I had. From the fan atmosphere, to coaching, to knowing the non-league way of playing football. I was amazed,” the player states.

Now, in England in order to play in the amateur football, a foreigner had to get a work permit. That was if your visa had expired. Pala’s one year visa duration had now elapsed and he needed a permit in order to stay in the UK.

“We tried getting a work permit but our application was twice turned down because amateur leagues are normally a preserve of the UK citizens. So it is very hard for a foreigner to get a permit to play in that league,” the player discloses.

But Pala was one likeable boy, and Kettering Town were not ready to let him go from their books without conjuring up different options.

“The owner of Kettering owns different clubs in the UK, USA and China. My story was taken to him and the chairman agreed to move me to China in the fourth division. So, upon agreement of personal details and completing negotiations, China passed a law that barred its leagues from having foreigners from the fourth division going down. So despite agreeing everything, the Chinese FA passed that law and consequently I did not have any option but to return home,” Pala recalls how unfortunate events turned out on him.

“It was a very emotional return for me. They organized a farewell party for me and gave me a decent sendoff,” he states.

He then returned back to Kenya in 2019. And after close to four months without a club, something close to a miracle would thrust him into the top flight league, a dream.

The very same owner of Kettering who wanted to take him to China toured the country with the prospects of opening an academy locally. During the meeting, Pala would land a club when the owner, in one way or another organized him to try out at top flight side Sofapaka where he was signed on a two year contract after three weeks of trying out.

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Unfortunately for Pala it was not to be at the 2009 Kenyan champions as he was axed at the start of the 2019/2020 season having never made any appearance in the top flight league. He however featured in cup competitions for the Batoto ba Mungu.

“Unfortunately these guys axed me two weeks to the close of the transfer window. I trained with KRA (Ushuru FC) and when I was just on the verge of joining after impressing in the trials, a different player who had experience in the Kenyan game was preferred over me and that is how I missed an opportunity to join a club for a full season because the window was closed,” Pala narrates another unfortunate event.

To Pala’s rescue, that 2019/2020 season was abandoned midway after the novel covid-19 pandemic hit in the country. In November 2020, with the restart of a new 2020/2021 season, Pala would earn himself a three year contract at Posta Rangers where, unlike Sofapaka he earned his maiden start in the Premier League in a 1-1 draw against Zoo on 13th January 2021 under former head coach Sammy ‘Pamzo’ Omollo – his best and most favorite coach in the league.

Another unfortunate series of injury ruled him out from playing and forced him to be taken out on loan when new head coach Stanley Okumbi took over from Pamzo.

“Unfortunately when I was just starting to pick up, I was loaned out after picking up a knee injury. I was a bit slow and I had to get going somewhere else to get back in shape.”

He was then taken to Nairobi Stima to get back to his feet in the National Super League. After training with his new Stima side for only one week, the head coach was so impressed with his abilities that he was drafted into the starting eleven where he was supposed to mark his first start for the club. Little did he know that another event was just lurking on the wings.

President Uhuru Kenyatta, on Friday March 26th 2021, issued a suspension on all sporting activities in the country following another deadly rise of covid-19 infections in the capital.

So, Pala’s series of unfortunate circumstances continued. But he chose to stay patient, after all, he is a firm believer that everything happens for a reason and that his time will come, and nothing will stop it.

In all his failures, successes, trials and tribulations, Pala knows, out of the lessons he has picked in his journey, that he is ready to take on anything that comes his way without any ounce of fear.

“Football has gotten me to a point that nothing fazes me anymore. When I was rejected in Nepal, when lockdown happened just before I got my first start, when Sofapaka released me, when I was shipped out on loan, it all strengthened me mentally. Whether in life, whether in business, whether in football, it has taught me to be strong,” Pala talks about his greatest lesson.

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And now that he plays professional football and is paid to do, his family has reconciled around that fact and only now find it funny.

“You mean nowadays you are paid to play football? They ask. But they are always happy for me when they see my name on the lineups and on Twitter. They all feel so proud of me,” Pala concludes.

The audacity of dreams we call it.