Harambee Stars captain Michael Olunga turned 29 years on Sunday, and coincidentally he will be marking eight years since making his debut for the national team on Tuesday, March 28, when Kenya takes on Iran in an international friendly.Aged 21 years, Olunga made his senior national team debut under coach Bobby Williamson on 28th March 2015 against Seychelles as he went on to feature for 55 minutes in the match that Kenya won 2-0.##NAJAVA_MECA_7125113##In the eight years that the towering striker has donned the national team colours, he has managed to make 48 appearances, scoring 21 goals in the process across all competitions.He got his maiden national team goal in only his third match, scoring against South Sudan in June the same year in Kigali during the Genocide Memorial Cup. Since then, 20 more goals have followed, and perhaps more will come.Michael Olunga will be representing Kenya in his eighth exact year when he faces Iran on March 28.The current team captain made his debut back on 28 March 2015 in a friendly game against Seychelles.He has since played 48 games, scoring 21 goals.Thread🧵#MichaelOlunga pic.twitter.com/tXByOMAcMr— OptaKe (@ke_opta) March 26, 2023 The 21 goals for the national team are spread across, with the most coming from friendlies, followed by World Cup qualifiers, then AFCON qualifiers, and finally AFCON finals and CECAFA Cup. In this context, matches such as those in the Genocide Memorial Cup are considered friendlies.He has netted five in World Cup qualifiers, his first in that category coming against Mauritius in October 2015 as Harambee Stars won 5-2 with the second following just a month later as he struck the lone goal in the 1-0 win over Cape Verde.In the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers, Olunga scored three goals, finding the back of the net in both legs against Rwanda and scoring against Uganda to see his tally for FIFA World Cup Qualifiers goals go to five.The Engineer has two goals at the AFCON finals and double the number in the AFCON qualifiers.Engineer Michael Olunga at the 2019 African Cup of Nations in Egypt pic.twitter.com/Igz1IROCE2— Ole Teya (@TeyaKevin) March 25, 2023 He scored a brace against neighbors Tanzania during the 2019 AFCON finals in Egypt as Kenya staged a strong comeback although they were already eliminated.In the qualifiers of the same competition, he scored in the identical 1-2 losses against Zambia in 2015 and Sierra Leone in 2017, in the 3-0 win over Ethiopia in 2018, and in the one-all draw against Egypt in 2019.In 2015 during the CEACAFA Cup, he scored twice in the tournament where Kenya was dumped out of the competition at the quarters stage by Burundi, inscribing his name on the scoresheets of the group stage matches against Uganda and Burundi.The biggest chunk of his goals for Harambee Stars have come in international friendlies. In that kind of matches, he has scored eight goals. Four of the eight goals in those friendly matches have come against DR Congo, with the other four being against South Sudan, Iraq, the Central African Republic, and Uganda.Is AFC Leopards revenue from gate collection correlated to their performance?Further, Olunga’s 21 goals have been realized in 19 matches. He has grabbed only two braces so far when playing for the national team, against Tanzania in Egypt in 2019 and against DR Congo in 2017 in a friendly match staged at Machakos Stadium.In those 19 matches when he has scored, Kenya has lost in only four of them, drawn in six, and won nine times. Olunga has always fancied a goal against DR Congo, scoring in all three instances that he has played against them including grabbing one of his two braces during his national team career so far.Uganda follows the list of teams that the 29-year-old has scored against on three goals, with Tanzania and Rwanda on two. He has scored once against South Sudan, Zambia, Mauritius, Cape Verde, Burundi, Sierra Leonne, Iraq, Central African Republic, Ethiopia, and Egypt to sum it up.His record at the club level has been impressive, conquering the Kenyan Premier League with Gor Mahia before moving to Sweden where he did well at Djurgadens. He the moved to the Japanese top league with Kashiwa Reysol and is currently creating history with Al Duhail in Qatar.Happy Birthday, Micah!
