{"id":135241,"date":"2026-03-24T08:02:56","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T08:02:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/kenyan-defender-marcelo-launches-inter-university-tournament\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T08:02:56","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T08:02:56","slug":"kenyan-defender-marcelo-launches-inter-university-tournament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/kenyan-defender-marcelo-launches-inter-university-tournament\/","title":{"rendered":"Kenyan defender Marcelo launches inter-university tournament"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Harambee Stars left back Eric Marcelo Ouma has unveiled the inaugural Super Eight Inter-University Football Tournament with the aim of nurturing talent.<\/p>\n<p>The tournament set to be hosted at Kenyatta University between May 30th and June 1st, 2026, is organised by the Erick \u2018Marcelo\u2019 Ouma Foundation (EMOF) and aims at transforming the university football landscape in Kenya.<\/p>\n<p>The initiative marks a significant step toward reimagining university football by creating opportunities for exposure, collaboration, and long-term development within the sport.<\/p>\n<p>It also calls upon stakeholders, partners, and the wider sports community to play an active role in shaping the future of Kenyan football.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at the launch on Monday Marcelo said;\u201cThis inaugural Inter-Universities Football Tournament is more than a competition\u2014it is a statement. A statement that we are ready to build and reimagine the journey of a Kenyan footballer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Participating\u00a0 teams have been divided into two pools with\u00a0 Group A featuring\u00a0 Kenyatta University, Strathmore University, Zetech University, and African International University, while Group B includes KCA University, St. Paul\u2019s University, Kenya Methodist University, and Mount Kenya University.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEverywhere I have played, one lesson has remained constant football does not grow through lone efforts. No federation, player, or organization succeeds alone. The great footballing nations we admire today were built through collaboration\u2014through many hands, many hearts, and a shared vision,\u201d Ouma added.<\/p>\n<p>Marcelo has an illustrious football career spanning to 50 caps for the Harambee Stars since his first call-up in 2016.<\/p>\n<p>The 29-year-old left back also played for Gor Mahia in 2016 before joining FC Kolkheti 1913 in Georgia in 2017.<\/p>\n<p>In 2018-2019 Marcelo joined Swedish side Vasalund, then switched to AIK Football, still in Scandinavia, featuring 45 times between 2020 and 2023.<\/p>\n<p>Ouma has already amassed 44 caps with his current\u00a0 Polish top-tier league club Rak\u00f3w Cz\u0119stochowa since joining them in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kbc.co.ke\/kenyan-defender-marcelo-launches-inter-university-tournament\/\">Kenyan defender Marcelo launches inter-university tournament<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kbc.co.ke\/\">KBC Digital<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Harambee Stars left back Eric Marcelo Ouma has unveiled the inaugural Super Eight Inter-University Football Tournament with the aim of nurturing talent. The tournament set to be hosted at Kenyatta University between May 30th and June 1st, 2026, is organised by the Erick \u2018Marcelo\u2019 Ouma Foundation (EMOF) and aims at transforming the university football landscape [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-135241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135241\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}