Inside the rise of a little-known Kenyan starlet targeting Zambian league glory with Zesco Ndola Girls

The Zambian frontier has in recent years offered a fertile environment for Kenyan footballers seeking sterner challenges across the region.

From the past Zesco United trio of: David 'Calabar'Owino, Jesse Were and Anthony Akumu to the present Moses Shuma at Power Dynamos, the men, each flourishing regardless of club- the shift has now swung the women’s way. 

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Ivy Omondi, after a brief sabbatical from football, has found her way into Zesco Ndola Girls starting eleven barely weeks after signing for the Super league outfit.

Deployed as a free-roving midfielder, Omondi’s entry into the ZSL is nothing short of pioneering, and her performance for Ndola Girls will heavily determine this. This she knows. 

‘’Of course it’s not going to be easy. In fact it’s not but this is where I am now and must compete and prove that Zesco bringing me in was not in vain,’’ she says. 

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Omondi, though, is no stranger to international football having had stints in the Indian Super league before.

Zesco offers a different kind of challenge for her, she admits. 

‘’The Zambian league is more physical but that I am used to as we play just like that in Kenya. I have settled in and adapted to the team’s way of playing,’’ she adds. 

Before making her debut against Nchanga Rangers Ladies, Omondi had to undergo a gruelling one month trial period with the top Zambian side as the technical bench assessed her abilities-and whether or not she would at least help the former champions reclaim their league title this season. 

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She has since grown on the technical bench’s preferences and regularly gets minutes, her latest appearance being from the bench as her side dismantled bottom place Chipata Ladies 8-0 in round 28 of the league.

It’s a victory that brings them to just within a point off top place Green Buffalos Women.

It would be personally gratifying to win the league on her first attempt she says. 

‘’We all always play to win. For us, the title in this case. Zesco is a big team and has won the league before. Our current position means we can still go for it and we indeed are. Personally, to win the league in my first season would be the perfect redemption,’’ continues the hard-tackling midfielder. 

There’s heavy competition for starting places as always with top teams, and Omondi relishes this- iron sharpens iron she says.

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Only by fighting for a starting chance among the best can she also improve her form.

Her side after all, is not short of national team names as some of the seasoned players in the team have featured for the Zambian national team the Copper Queens.

This kind of company only means for her that she’ll come out better. 

‘’If getting a chance to start was easy I would have been worried. The heavy competition only means we are a team with immense quality within and that is a bar good enough for me. At the end of the day I know I am improving,’’ she concludes. 

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