Bayern and Ajax will inaugurate a stadium in Kenya

Bayern Munich and Ajax Amsterdam They will play a friendly match on January 5, 2027 to inaugurate the Raila Odinga International Stadium in the Talanta Sports City in Nairobi, as announced this Wednesday by the President of Kenya, William Ruto.

The president confirmed that the meeting will be financed by the private sector and will serve as an international showcase before the 2027 Africa Cup, which Kenya will co-organize with Uganda and Tanzania.

“Ladies and gentlemen, in January 2027 we will inaugurate this stadium with a historic match between FC Bayern and Ajax,” Ruto said on social media.

A stadium with special financing

The venue, with a capacity for 60,000 spectators, will be financed through corporate alliances and a self-sustaining business model to reduce dependence on public funds.

Both clubs independently confirmed their participation in the inaugural match, which will take advantage of the winter break of the Bundesliga and the Eredivisie.

“A special match to start the new year: FC Bayern will travel to Nairobi on January 5, 2027 and face Ajax Amsterdam there for the ceremonial opening of the new national stadium,” the German club published on the social network X.

The opposition leader after whom the stadium is named

For his part, President Ruto linked the history of both clubs with the identity of the sports project and the figure of the late opposition leader Raila Odinga.

“There is a silent poetry in this intersection. “Raila studied in Germany and now a big German club will come to play at the house that bears his name,” stated the Kenyan head of state.

“This is more than the opening of a stadium. It is a statement of who we are and, more importantly, who we are becoming,” Ruto concluded, highlighting that the infrastructure will maintain a self-sustaining business model through corporate alliances.

Raila Odinga (1945–2025) was one of the most defining and influential figures in Kenya’s political history. Better known as ‘Slime’, He was prime minister between 2008 and 2013, and spent almost nine years imprisoned without trial for his activism in favor of multiparty democracy.