Paul Were Ooko (; born 8 October 1993) is a Kenyan professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays as a winger for Greek

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in Association football around the world, the w ...

club

Egaleo Aigaleo or Egaleo ( ) is a town and a suburban municipality in the western part of the Athens urban area, belonging to the West Athens regional administrative unit. It takes its name from Mount Aigaleo, whose name comes from the words αίγα/a ...

and the Kenya national team.

Club career

Kenyan Premier League

On 29 January 2010, Were joined Tusker from

Mathare Youth Mathare Youth Football Club was a football club based in Nairobi, Kenya. It played in the Kenyan Premier League but was relegated in 2008. It last competed in the FKF Division One, the third tier of Kenyan football. The team was owned by the Ma ...

ahead of the 2010 season. Spending two and a half seasons at the club, he helped the side win the

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

title in

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

. Halfway through Tusker's second consecutive title winning season, Were left the Brewers to join

A.F.C. Leopards Abaluhya Football Club Leopards Sports Club, officially abbreviated as AFC Leopards, is a Kenyan professional football club based in Nairobi. It currently competes in the Kenyan Premier League, the top tier of the Kenyan football league syst ...

on 6 June 2012 on a one-year contract. He was named

Man of the Match In team sport, a player of the match award (also known as man of the match or woman of the match) is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chose ...

on his debut for ''Ingwe'' on 27 June, despite being substituted in the 75th minute by skipper Martin Imbalambala, putting in an outstanding performance that included an assist for

Allan Wanga Allan Wetende Wanga (born 26 November 1985 in Kisumu) is a Kenyan footballer who currently plays for Kakamega Homeboyz in the Kenya Premier League as a striker, where he also is the sporting director. His dream of playing in the UEFA Europa L ...

, who scored the only goal of the game against

Sofapaka Sofapaka Football Club (Sofapaka: Sote kama Familia kwa Pamoja Kuafikia Azimio – Kiswahili: ''We as a Family together to achieve a goal'') is a football club, based in Wundanyi, Taita Taveta County. They play their home games at the Wunda ...

to earn his side all 3 points. The following season, Were played 55 minutes before coming off for Oscar Kadenge to help his side clinch their 9th

President's Cup The Presidents Cup is a series of men's golf matches between a team representing the United States and an International Team representing the rest of the world except Europe as that continent competes against the United States in a similar but ...

title. On 10 February 2014, rumours of Were leaving for trials with an unnamed South African clubs began to surface. Four days later, it was reported that he was to trial with

Premier Soccer League The Premier Soccer League (PSL) is the administrative body for professional soccer leagues and cups in South Africa. It is based in Johannesburg, and was founded in 1996 following an agreement between the National Soccer League and the remnant ...

side

Bidvest Wits Bidvest Wits Football Club, (simply often known as Wits University F.C. or Wits) was a South African professional football club from Johannesburg which played in the Premiership the first-tier of South African league football system. It was ni ...

, and consequently would not play in A.F.C. Leopards'

CAF Confederation Cup The CAF Confederation Cup, known as the TotalEnergies CAF Confederation Cup for sponsorship purposes, is an annual association football football team, club competition established in 2004 and organized by Confederation of African Football, CAF ...

second leg match away to Ethiopian side

Defence Defense or defence may refer to: Tactical, martial, and political acts or groups * Defense (military), forces primarily intended for warfare * Civil defense, the organizing of civilians to deal with emergencies or enemy attacks * Defense indust ...

, against whom he provided two assists to give his side the advantage ahead of the game on 9 February. He finished a five-day trial period with the Clever Boys on 21 February before returning to ''Ingwe'' for their Confederation Cup

first round First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

tie against

SuperSport United SuperSport United Football Club (often known as SuperSport) is a South African professional association football, football club based in Atteridgeville in Pretoria in the Gauteng province. The team currently plays in the South African Premier Di ...

. News involving two unnamed PSL clubs expressing an interest in signing Were also surfaced. On 23 February, Were made his first Premier League appearance of the season for

since returning from South Africa in a barren draw against

Ulinzi Stars Ulinzi Stars Football Club is a professional association football club based in Nakuru, Kenya. They compete in the Kenyan Premier League, where they won three consecutive titles from 2003 to 2005. They are the only team to have done so, along wit ...

at the

Nyayo National Stadium Nyayo National Stadium is a 18,000-seater multipurpose stadium in Nairobi, Kenya.https://www.parliament.go.ke/sites/default/files/2024-09/Hansard%20Report%20-%20Wednesday%2C%2025th%20September%202024%20%28P%29.pdf It is located at the square o ...

. However, it was reported that the

continued to monitor the winger during the course of the season.

AmaZulu

On 16 July 2014, Were signed a three-year contract with

AmaZulu Zulu people (; ) are a native people of Southern Africa of the Nguni people, Nguni. The Zulu people are the largest Ethnic groups in South Africa, ethnic group and nation in South Africa, living mainly in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. They o ...

in the

South African Premier Division The South African Premiership, also known as the Betway Premiership for sponsorship reasons, and commonly referred to as the PSL after its governing body, is a professional soccer league in South Africa and the highest level of the South Afric ...

ahead of the 2014–15 season. In the aftermath of their relegation from the South African top flight, Were terminated his contract in June 2015 after only one season with the club.

Kalloni

On 20 August 2015, it was announced that Were signed a contract for

Superleague Greece The Super League Greece 1 (), or Stoiximan Super League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Greece and the highest level of the Greek football league system. The league was formed on 16 July 2006 and repl ...

side

Kalloni Kalloni () is a town in the west-central part of the island of Lesbos, Greece. It is the seat of the West Lesbos municipality and the Kalloni municipal unit within it. Prior to 2011 the current municipal unit was a municipality. The name also ...

. The length of the contract was undisclosed.

Denizlispor

On 7 August 2016, Were joined Turkish side Denizlispor on a one-year deal.

International career

Were earned his first call-up to the Kenya national team for an

international friendly An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, scrimmage, demonstration, training match, pre-season game, warmup match, or preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sport, sporting event whose prize money and impact on th ...

against

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

on 9 February 2011. He made his senior international debut for the Harambee Stars as a substitute for

Victor Wanyama Victor Mugubi Wanyama (; born 25 June 1991) is a Kenyan professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for club Dunfermline Athletic. He also plays for the Kenya national team. Wanyama became the first ever Kenyan player to sc ...

, but could not help his side prevent a 2–0 loss to Bafana Bafana at the

Royal Bafokeng Stadium The Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace is a football, rugby and athletics stadium in Phokeng near Rustenburg, South Africa. It was built and is managed by the Royal Bafokeng Nation. It was used as the home stadium for Premier Soccer League club P ...

Rustenburg Rustenburg (; , Afrikaans and Dutch language, Dutch: ''City of Rest'') is a town at the foot of the Magaliesberg mountain range. Rustenburg is the most populous city in North West (South African province), North West province, South Africa (549 ...

. He was also part of the squad that finished in second place at the

2012 CECAFA Cup The 2012 CECAFA Cup (known as the CECAFA Tusker Challenge Cup for sponsorship reasons) was the 36th edition of the annual CECAFA Cup, an international football competition consisting of national teams of member nations of the Council for East and ...

, providing

Edwin Lavatsa Edwin Lavatsa (born 3 January 1993) is a Kenyan footballer who plays for Kakamega Homeboys in the Kenyan Premier League and the Kenya national team as a forward. Lavatsa spent three seasons with Gor Mahia, with whom he won the league title ...

with an assist to level the scores at 1–1 in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

. However, he could not help his side stop

Geoffrey Kizito Geoffrey Baba Kizito (born 2 February 1993), also known as Trần Trung Hiếu, is a Ugandan professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for V.League 1 club Becamex Binh Duong. Club career Born in Kampala, he spent the 2012 and 2 ...

's match-winning header only three minutes later. On 6 February 2013, Were scored his first goal for his country in the 80th minute of an international friendly against

Libya Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya border, the east, Sudan to Libya–Sudan border, the southeast, Chad to Chad–L ...

, sealing a 3–0 win for his side at the

Stade Chedli Zouiten Chedly Zouiten Stadium () is a multi-purpose stadium in the Mutuelleville district of Tunis, Tunisia. It is currently used by football team Stade Tunisien. The stadium holds 18,000 people. It hosted the 1965 Africa Cup of Nations. It was reno ...

Tunis Tunis (, ') is the capital city, capital and largest city of Tunisia. The greater metropolitan area of Tunis, often referred to as "Grand Tunis", has about 2,700,000 inhabitants. , it is the third-largest city in the Maghreb region (after Casabl ...

, Tunisia.

International goals

:''Scores and results list Kenya's goal tally first.'' Source: National-Football-Teams.com

References

External links

* * http://www.soka.co.ke/search/paul%20were * {{DEFAULTSORT:Were, Paul 1991 births Living people Tusker F.C. players A.F.C. Leopards players AmaZulu F.C. players AEL Kalloni F.C. players Acharnaikos F.C. players Kalamata F.C. players FC Kaisar players Kenyan men's footballers Kenya men's international footballers Expatriate men's soccer players in South Africa Men's association football wingers 2019 Africa Cup of Nations players People from Rift Valley Province 21st-century Kenyan sportsmen