Kenyan Premier League: Brazilian Leonardo Martins Neiva takes charge at Gor Mahia

The coaching role at the record league winners fell vacant on May 22nd, 2024, after Johnathan McKinstry, who had won two successive titles, left to take up the vacant job at the Gambia on a two-year contract.

Gor Mahia have moved to fill the void left by McKinstry and on Monday, July 1st, 2024, announced the arrival of Martins Neiva, who will be assisted by former Harambee Stars and current Sofapaka coach Zedekiah “Zico” Otieno and Michael Nam.

“Leo Neiva from Brazil is our new head coach; the ex-Vipers SC, Young Africans (Yanga SC) and Al-Merrikh coach will be assisted by our former player and coach Zedekiah 'Zico' Otieno and Michael Nam,” read part of the statement on their official social media pages.

Speaking on being unveiled, Martins Neiva said: “It is a big honour to take over at these great giants in Kenya and great giants of East Africa, we are going to try our best to put Gor Mahia at the highest level of African football.

“I thank the club, especially chairman Ambrose (Rachier) for choosing me for the job and promise to do my best.”

The arrival of Martins Neiva brings to an end speculation about who was to take charge at K’Ogalo. After the exit of McKinstry, Gor Mahia announced that over 50 foreign coaches had applied for the job, and they were later shortlisted to 10.

Gor Mahia Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Raymond Oruo told Flashscore a week ago that they intended to bring in a coach with experience to navigate in the CAF Champions League.

“We had over 50 coaches, all foreigners, applying for the vacant job, and we did a shortlist to 10, we will pick one from the pool, and our target is to hire someone, who has experience in matters of continental football, especially the Champions League,” Oruo told Flashcore.

K’Ogalo, who won a record 21st title in the 2023/24 campaign, will return to the Champions League after they received clearance from FKF. Last season, despite winning the title, Gor Mahia could not participate in the tournament after they were barred by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for their failure to meet part of the club licensing requirements.

What you need to know about Martins Neiva

Born in Rio de Janeiro, Martins Neiva, who is a Brazilian Pro License football coach and former Brazilian footballer, started his career as an assistant coach for América FC (Rio de Janeiro) in 2007. Then he accepted the invitation to take over the Platinum Stars FC (Royal Bafokeng) Academy in South Africa, which later turned out to be the first of eight countries outside Brazil.

Martins Neiva, a former midfielder, recently achieved a historic feat for the Caribbean national team. He led Saint Kitts and Nevis to first place in Group F in the first round of Concacaf qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup, outperforming Trinidad and Tobago, Puerto Rico, Bahamas, and Guyiana.

This was the first time in history that the “Sugar Boyz” reached the second round of the qualifiers, being the only non-main team in the group to qualify. Under his reign, Saint Kitts and Nevis improved from 27th place in the ranking of Concacaf to 14th.

After this experience, the coach returned to Brazil in 2010 to lead the Bonsucesso-RJ team, where he was the head coach of the senior and the U20. He had the opportunity to take over Yadanarbon FC, where he had a lot of prominence in the work with young players. A large number of them reached the U20 national team that participated in the U20 World Cup for the first time in history in New Zealand (2015).

He previously worked on four continents (Asia, Africa, North America (Caribbean), and South America and recently spent a stint in Asia, where he managed in the Thailand Premier League. The invitation came after an excellent job done in his second stint at Yadanarbon FC, a club in Myanmar.

In Africa there were two passes, the first in South Africa by Platinum Stars, where he won the Nelson Mandela Cup in 2009 and later, in Tanzania, he achieved the remarkable achievement of the National League of Tanzania and the Super Cup in 2014/2015 with Young African (Yanga SC) as an assistant coach.

Earlier this season, he had a stint in Uganda with champions Vipers SC before heading to Sudan, where he handled giant Al Merrikh.