At 19 years old, Liban Kenai Ali aspires to play for the national team, Harambee Stars, aiming to bring pride to his country and carry on a family legacy that runs through his veins.
Sports run in his family’s blood, as his grandfather, Haroub Shemte, played for Zanzibar, and his aunt, Thara Ali, plays for Oman’s women’s football team.
Kenya’s top swimmer, Haniel Kudwoli, is also his cousin. Kudwoli is known for breaking the national boys’ 50m breaststroke record of 29.45 seconds, which Jason Dunford had previously set.
Born and raised in Kenya, Ali seems to be a jack of all sports. As a multi-talented player, he started off his career with basketball, rugby, and tennis before settling on the beautiful game—football.
The youngster is currently in the country for a short holiday before departing for the United States of America, where he will be playing for St Joseph’s College of Maine. He remains focused on playing professional football.
“From a very young age, I played all sports, including rugby, football, basketball, and tennis. Like everything,” he says.
Ali narrates that he decided to focus on football in 2018 by joining Diamond Football Club and helped them win the prestigious Gothia Cup tournament in Sweden.
Four years later, he set his sights on the USA to pursue a football career.
“I went in 2022, in my last two years of High School,” he narrates, adding that he then shifted to France, where he played in the fifth division called Championnat National 3 with a team called Saint-Estéve, which plays in the city of Perpignan, Southern France. The club was founded in 1977.
“I was there for a good amount of time before I moved to the United Kingdom and joined a private academy called FCV International Academy,” he says.
Some of the other graduates from the academy include defender Zhani Burgess and goalkeeper Shahoi Doesett, who were both called for Antigua.
Asked about how he balances sports and academics, Ali says that education is essential, but he sees his future in professional football.
“I want to play in the international scene, and I also want to help build a legacy and a name for myself and Harambee Stars because there is a lot of potential in the team, and I think there is a lot to achieve,” the lastborn in a family of two says.
The utility player, who adores former Ajax Academy player Sidney Turner and Kenya U20 midfielder Aldrine Kibet, has won the Most Valuable Player award in the USA and the Coach of the Year award in the United Kingdom.
His mother, Shakila Padamshi, says he played vital roles in his teams’ performances both in the UK and the USA. This earned him the nickname ‘Swiss knife’.
“I remember I asked the current coach in the UK (Shane) about Ali’s abilities, and he said that he’s a very versatile player who can play with either leg. He uses him when he feels,” she says.
Shakila explains that Ali started to show interest in sports at the age of six. She says that his playtime was about knocking over things in the house using a paper ball. Eventually, when he joined school, she recalled, he was a natural in all the games that he played.
The mother of two boys says that the cost of supporting her son’s dreams and sports path is expensive, as Kenya is still grappling with providing ideal facilities for individuals like her son to train and grow.
She, however, hopes that he will eventually play for Kenya.
To understand the pressure and the cost of being a football player’s mother, she says, visit the world’s largest international youth football tournament, the Gothia Cup.
“It is very costly to have a child who loves sports and is naturally good at it. First of all, playing in all these tournaments during the school season means you are constantly switching gears, buying different uniforms and kits. On top of it, you are signing him into private clubs, and as you know, all these things are not free for us here and not easily accessible,” she explains.