Kenyan international Eric ‘Marcelo’ Ouma has recounted on missing the defender of the year award in the Swedish top tier end-of-season awards in December.Ouma had been nominated for the award alongside his teammate and club captain Alexander Milošević and the Djurgården’s defender Hjalmar Ekdal who went on to beat the two AIK defenders to the accolade.The defender featured in all but one of the 30 games for AIK, being subbed off only once.In the 29 games that he played, he helped AIK to keep 11 clean sheets and scored once against IFK Göteborg, providing assists in five other instances.According to Erick Marcelo Ouma, French clubs are interested in his services.https://t.co/dGZYOInlzi— Mozzart Sport Kenya (@MozzartSportKe) January 10, 2022 He was definitely the fans’ favorite to win the award and his miss brought about an uproar from a section of AIK and Allsvenskan as they believed that he was the better-placed to be feted.Ouma said that he also believed he was the favorite, but took the outcome positively resolving to focus ahead.”I believed the same but anything happens in football. Such things happen and they make someone stronger. You might miss winning it in Sweden or in Kenya but in the future, you win something bigger than that. I took it positively and decided to focus ahead,” he said.The former Gor Mahia left-back said that it was his best season since turning pro, having had spent the previous one with an injury that saw him sidelined for a while.Eric Ouma is the best left back in the world. Don’t argue with me, utanipea moodswings. https://t.co/hXZ2gCAKME pic.twitter.com/6J5cuOx64q— Japheth Mutinda (@JaphMutinda) December 20, 2021 He attributed his success in the campaign to being focused on playing and training, as well as to taking enough rests in between matches and training sessions.”I think it is the best season I have had since turning professional because if you look at the previous one I had a lengthy injury so I had to work hard. It was a long process but with patience and believing in God it was successful. The secret in that season is that I used to rest a lot and gave me the energy to go to the next session. I was focused on what I was doing and was taking rest more seriously to help cut on the small injuries. If you do not rest well, you are prone to more muscle injuries,” he added.
