Doreen Nabwire

Life and work

Doreen Nabwire Omondi (born 5 March 1987), nicknamed "Dodo", is a Kenyan former footballer. In 2009, Nabwire became the first Kenyan woman to play professional football in Europe. She also played and served as captain of the Kenya women's national football team. She played for FC Zwolle in de Eredivisie Vrouwen from 2010 to 2011.

Since 2016, she has been working as the Women's Football Development Officer and Director of Women's football for the Football Kenya Federation.

Nabwire co-founded a Community Based Organization (CBO) called Girls Unlimited in 2009, which uses a variety of sports to nurture and develop youths' talents to bring social change and development in communities in Kenya.

Born in Ngomongo estate in Korogocho and grew up in Mathare Valley, one of Nairobi's largest slums, Doreen Nabwire grew up with her five siblings and parents. She attended Valley Bridge Primary School in Huruma and Maina Wanjigi High School in Eastleigh.

She started playing football on the streets at the age of ten and was discovered by players who noticed her talent and told her about a project being run by the Nobel Peace Prize nominated Mathare Youth Sports Association (MYSA) with the aim of empowering young people through football. She wanted to join the women's team of Mathare United, but she was held back by her mother who felt that women were not meant to play football. She was later allowed to join the North Villas, a football club in MYSA after her father intervened.

MYSA was being supported by the Norway Cup, the largest youth football tournament in the world which attracted over 1,000 teams. She was invited to trials for the MYSA team in 1998 and she made the team ahead of the tournament. From then onward, she was part of the team in three consecutive trips to the competition as a teenager. In 1999, she took part in the tournament for the first time with the U-14 team and later won in 2000 and 2001 as captain.

Nabwire joined SV Werder Bremen in the German second division in 2009. On 27 September 2009, during her debut during the opening match of the season, she scored a brace to take Bremen to 2–2 draw against Hamburger SV II. Her goal made her the first player to score for Werder Bremen in the 2. Bundesliga.

She was voted as the second best player of the team by the fans. In the summer of 2010, she transferred to PEC Zwolle in the Netherlands, who joined the Eredivisie Women that year. On 30 September 2010, she made her debut in a 3–0 loss to ADO Den Haag. The following league match on 4 October 2010, she scored her debut goal in a 3–2 loss to FC Utrecht. She only stayed for one season, played 16 matches and scored one goal before returning to her native Kenya. While in playing for Zwolle, she studied and earned the professional UEFA C coaching license.

She returned to Kenya in July 2011 and joined MOYAS FC as a player coach and helped them to win the Kenya Super 8 League that year. She later joined Matuu FC and won the 2012 Kenyan Women's Premier League. In 2013, she became assistant coach of MOYAS FC.

In November 2013, she returned to Germany for the 2013–2014 season, to sign for 1. FC Köln who were then in the second division. She played her only match for the club on 1 December 2013 when she was substituted in the 84th minute in the 2–1 loss to eventual league winners SC Sand. In February 2014, she suffered a ruptured achilles tendon which ended her season and her club career in Europe.

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