Montreal Impact and Harambee Stars midfielder Victor Wanyama has revealed how his agent and elder brother McDonald Mariga blocked a move to Russian side CSKA Moscow.
Wanyama stated the Russian top-flight side were among the clubs that approached him while he was about to leave Beerschot at the end of 2011.
Without mentioning the exact figures CSKA Moscow had offered him to sign for them, the former Southampton star states it was a staggering amount of money that he had never been promised before.
“Since Bescheoft were willing to sell me, a lot of offers came and one of the clubs that wanted me and came with a lot of money is CSKA Moscow. I was confused given the amount they wanted to sign me for and the salary I would have enjoyed,” Wanyama told Madgoat TV.
“My agent advised me if I wanted to play football and leave behind a good legacy, then I should not be interested in money at first. He told me to build a legacy and name first and the rest will come later.
“He [the agent] told me straight he would not take the deal whether I was happy or not.
“I talked with [McDonald] Mariga and he told me Russia should not be the next destination even if they offered good money.”
The 28-year-old defensive midfielder also talked of interest in his signature from two English sides at the time.
“Birmingham and Blackburn also came but I could not join them directly from Belgium because it was hard to join an English team from there and that is why I had to go the Celtic way first before branching to England later,” he added.
The Kenyan skipper described with love his first moments at the Scottish club, which he says offered him the biggest stage ever in his career.
“At Celtic, I felt happier as this was a world stage for me. It is morale that we had at Celtic and the coach gave us inspiration every now and then which was really good for me and the team," continued Wanyama.
“It is not that we had superstars but the spirit and inspiration worked for us marvellously and given the fact we were talented we just enjoyed our moments on the pitch.”
Wanyama was on the scoresheet when Celtic defeated Barcelona 2-1 at Celtic Park in a Champions League tie in 2012.
“The atmosphere at Celtic Park is always something else and the fans are marvellous I have never seen such fans who love their team like Celtic's,” he concluded.
“It was the best feeling to score against Barcelona and playing a team like them. Barca had 89% ball possession against our 11%, had 23 attempts against our five attempts.
"Simply they defeated us in every aspect of the game but we emerged proud winners.”