By Eli Garcia –
Of all places to accept Jesus, former Chelsea starlet Gaël Kakuta came to faith in Iran.
He got contracted for a Tehran-based team (before the ongoing revolution), and even though Iran almost totally bans Christianity, he found Jesus in the Islamic Republic.
“Jesus took me away from everyone and everything,” Kakuta says. “I lost my youngest sister. My father passed away when I was 7. My sister passed away seven years before I lost my mother. I also had a divorce on the way. I had to tell my kids that I was not coming back home.”
Kakuta ended his long and storied career in Esteghlal, Tehran, for the 2024-’25 season. He was Didier Drogba’s protege at Chelsea in 2009, but he didn’t deliver and went to other teams: including Fulham, Lazio, Sevilla and Lens.
His career was winding down after 15 years and he took a spot in Iran.
That’s where he found Jesus – in the land of compulsory hijabs for women and calls to prayer broadcast over loudspeakers five times a day.
“I didn’t want to go there, but I felt something really strong pushing me to go there,” he says. “Now I can say it was the Holy Spirit.”
Isolated from friends and family, Kakuta could be undistracted enough to find God.
It started with dreams – dreams that revealed the spiritual realities of his life.
“I started having dreams in which I saw myself lying on a bed, covered in chains,” Kakuta said. “I saw a light inside me and saw some spirits trying to get close to me, but the light repelled them every time they tried to touch me.”
His mother had always told him to pray and sing. He found that this repelled the spirits too.
He met a pastor who helped him come to Christ.
“I was going through depression because there was lots of things that I was doing that wasn’t me,” he says. “I started to read the Bible. All the anger that I had against some people, everything was gone. I had some addictions as well.
“I start reading and reading and reading (the Bible), and Jesus keep on clearing me, washing me inside,” he adds. “I felt the love of God which is the real love.”
He still plays for the Democratic Republic of Congo national team and Al-Ahli in Saudi Arabia.
Related content: Khallil Lambin found Jesus via the Qur’an, Sources: CBN, others.
