Kenyan refugee was once almost electrocuted for refusing to smuggle drugs and injuries hampered his playing career – now he plans to become a ‘sick’ referee
An upcoming trial for Newcastle was on Jacob Viera’s mind when he returned home from training with Kenyan
Premier League team Tena United on 10 June 2014. As he reached for the front door handle on his Nairobi apartment, life was also about to turn. “I opened the door and ‘Bang!’” he says. “I was electrocuted.” Live wires had been connected to the handle from an electrical socket. A few years earlier he had refused to smuggle drugs into Tanzania while playing for Kenya’s Under-16s national team. The electric shock was punishment from the gang he defied.
Somehow, after being unconscious, in hospital for a month and with his face, neck and arm all scorched, Viera made that trial in August 2014. “There’s no way you turn a trial down with Newcastle, even after all this. My visa and flights had all been sorted,” he says, incredulous at the thought he might have passed up the opportunity.