#20
Defender
Ismael Athuman
Club
UD Las Palmas
League
Spain Second Division B
Region
Europe
Signed
2016
Estimated peak value · 2021
$59,000 / KSh 6.4m
Estimated, not a transfer fee — a €50,000 valuation around his first-team season at UD Las Palmas, at $1.18 to the euro and KSh 109 to the dollar.
Profile
Spain — the Las Palmas academy
A centre-back raised in the UD Las Palmas academy who made his Segunda División debut in December 2020 and played six league games for their first team that season.
Down the Spanish pyramid
He has kept going since — Real Murcia, Sabadell, Águilas, AD Mérida and Zamora — for 176 senior appearances and seven goals.
Kenya
He debuted in 2016, played every minute of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying campaign that ended a fifteen-year absence, and featured at the finals, for 11 caps in all.
Cup and continental record
Copa del Rey football with UD Las Palmas and later with Real Murcia, Sabadell, Mérida and Zamora, and Primera Federación play-off football in Spain. For Kenya, every minute of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying campaign and the finals themselves.
Managers he played under
Pepe Mel, the former Real Betis and West Bromwich Albion manager, was in charge at UD Las Palmas when he was given his Segunda División debut in December 2020.
Did you know
A Las Palmas academy defender who played every minute of Kenya's road to the Nations Cup
Athuman came through UD Las Palmas' youth system and made his Segunda División debut in December 2020. For Kenya he played every single minute of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying campaign — the one that took Harambee Stars back to the tournament after fifteen years — and then played at the finals. He has kept going through the Spanish pyramid at Real Murcia, Sabadell, Mérida and Zamora.
100%
Of Kenya's 2019 AFCON qualifying minutes played
2020
Segunda División debut for Las Palmas
15
Years since Kenya's previous AFCON appearance
Did you know
Spanish-born, Las Palmas-trained, and he chose Kenya
He came through the UD Las Palmas academy and made his Segunda División debut for the first team in December 2020, with a career since across Cacereño, Granada B, Fuenlabrada, Real Murcia, Sabadell, Águilas, Mérida and Zamora. Born in Spain, he debuted for Kenya in 2016 and was part of the side that qualified for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations.
2020
Segunda División debut for Las Palmas
2016
His first Kenya cap
2019
The AFCON side he helped qualify
Did you know
Benched at the Nations Cup, and gone for five years
Having played through qualification, he sat on the bench at the 2019 finals under Sébastien Migné and walked away from the national team for years afterwards. He has said it nearly ended his international career altogether. What brought him back was administration rather than football: he said in early 2025 that Mariga's arrival at the federation made him willing to answer a call again, and Benni McCarthy named him in a provisional World Cup qualifying squad that March.
2019
The tournament he watched from the bench
5 years
Away from the national team
2025
The recall to a qualifying squad
Career record
Centre-back born in Spain to a Kenyan father, formed at UD Las Palmas and a Segunda Division debutant in December 2020, with later spells at Cacereno, Granada B, Fuenlabrada, Real Murcia, Sabadell, Aguilas and Merida, now at Zamora. 11 Kenya caps, including the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations.
Career appearances and goals reconciled against Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ismael_Athuman)
176
Appearances
7
Goals
0
Assists
11
Caps
0
Int'l goals
AI score breakdown
| Criterion | Score | Max |
|---|---|---|
| League Strength | 15 | 25 |
| Club Prestige | 10 | 20 |
| Titles Won (weighted) | 4 | 20 |
| Impact | 10 | 15 |
| Total | 39 | 80 |
Either side of him in the ranking
Ahead of him · Number 19
