Tyson Otieno Explains How AFC Leopards Can Dislodge Gor Mahia Next Season

AFC Leopards midfielder Tyson Otieno feels his team have learned valuable lessons that could make them champions next season.

Leopards will be entering their 29th season without a league title when they begin the 2026-27 campaign but came close in the just-concluded season, missing out by five points.

Ingwe mounted a spirited title charge, pushing Gor Mahia, until their penultimate game of the season when they ultimately lost the fight following a 2-1 loss to APS Bomet.

In the end, Gor Mahia finished with 69 points while Leopards managed 64 but Otieno feels they can close the gap and knock K’Ogalo off their perch next term if they approach their games differently.

“From day one, we have to play every match as a final,” Otieno told Pulse Sports on the best approach to challenge for the league title next season.

Otieno also hopes that Ingwe can stop dropping points from a winning position as that is part of the reason they lost the title.

“We had games that let us down like Mathare United, Posta Rangers first leg. Those games were key because we were already leading,” he added.

The Leopards playmaker is hoping that the club’s management will further strengthen the squad and has challenged his teammates to utilise most of the chances he creates.

Otieno was one of the players who created numerous chances last season but most of them went to waste, costing the team wins.

“It is so frustrating and as a creative player, the person who can make me better is the player who scores from my passes. So, it is something to work and I cannot now stop creating,” he stated.

“[Last season] Coach assembled a good team and we had that willingness from everybody to fight and it was the goal of everyone to win the league.”

Otieno was among the players who made it to the Team of the Season during the FKF Premier League awards gala and will hope to drive his team to success and perhaps clinch more individual awards in 2027.