Cleveland City Stars News Release - www.clevelandcitystars.com

Thursday, July 10, 2008

CLEVELAND, OH -- The Cleveland City Stars reached a major agreement this week with one of Africa’s most popular players when the team signed Musa Otieno. Otieno is originally from Nairobi Kenya where he made over 100 appearances for the Kenya National Team from 1993-2008. Otieno retired from the national team earlier this season after serving as team captain for the previous eight years.

Professionally, Otieno has played for Santos of the South African Premier League in Cape Town since 1997. The Premier League is generally regarded as the highest form of professional soccer in Africa. Otieno was named the league’s player of the year following the 2007 season and was recently awarded the Commissioners Cup for his service and dedication to his team.

The 6’4" Otieno amazingly collected 40 goals during his Santos career despite playing as a defender. Because of his size and stature in his native continent, Otieno has been nicknamed "Kilimanjaro" after the Kenyan mountain range of the same name.

"The chance to join the Cleveland City Stars was an exciting opportunity," said Otieno. "It was hard to leave my wife and kids in Kenya but it is not much different from when I was playing in Cape Town. I have traveled all through Europe and Africa but this is my first trip to the States. It has always been a dream of mine to play professionally outside of Africa and I am finally able to do that.”

"Playing on the National Team for so many years was a great experience but it was very difficult to keep up with the travel between the National Team and Santos. I would drive back and forth between Cape Town and Kenya and play multiple games per week and both teams expected 110 percent. I loved playing for Kenya but as I get older it is time to try something different.”

"At this point in my career it was time to start thinking about what I want to do after I’m done playing and I needed to make a decision for myself. Gaining experience outside of Africa and working with a team like the City Stars that does so much work with the community will be great for me when I go back to Kenya so that I can give back to my own community as well."

Otieno owns and operates a community outreach foundation in his home country of Kenya and was drawn to Cleveland by the City Stars’ community work. Besides bringing extraordinary international experience to the Cleveland roster, Otieno will also bolster the team’s hopes of serving the city and changing the world through its work in the urban areas of Cleveland.

"We are tremendously excited to have Musa join us in Cleveland. He will be an amazing asset to a team that is already succeeding," said Cleveland City Stars General Manager Mark Geissbauer. "He is a huge figure in sports in Africa and plays a key role through his humanitarian work with his foundation. We believe that coming here is a perfect fit, not only through soccer but through our mutual philosophy of working to help the community."

Cleveland currently holds a record of 7-2-5 which is good for 26 points and second place in the United Soccer Leagues Second Division. Cleveland was recently the only ULS-2 team to defeat a higher division opponent during the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup second round. The City Stars advanced to face the MLS Chicago Fire in the third round of the Open Cup and are now focused back on league play for the stretch run.

Otieno arrived in Cleveland two weeks ago and has been training with his new teammates while awaiting international clearance. Now that he is cleared, Cleveland fans will have an opportunity to see the legend in action this Saturday July 12 at Krenzler Stadium as the City Stars host third place Crystal Palace Baltimore at 7 pm in an important match-up of top USL-2 teams.