KENYAN FOOTBALL: THEY ARE NOT YOUNG! THEY ARE THE FUTURE

“If you refuse to be made straight when you are green, you will not be made straight when you are dry”! That’s what our football leaders have failed to encode for a long time now. Seated on the dirty hard slab at the Nyayo national stadium a fortnight ago I could not fail to admire the young Kenyan lads doing business for this great nation. It was the National Under-23 soccer team, which they had insisted was a Kenya Development side fearing that they would have lost and Kenya sink deeper in FIFA rankings. The boys went behind early in the game but I never at any one time lost faith in them based on their recent displays, ofcourse despite their usual poor preparations. This is the team that held African giants Guinea after losing by a solitary goal to a star studded Senegalese team that had the likes of England based Papiss Demba Cisse and Demba Ba amongst many others. Their confidence on and off the ball talked a lot and had they had better preparations for the game against Botswana, the scores could have been very much different. The football body in the Kenya needs to concentrate on these boys and other junior teams if at all they have Kenyan football at Heart. A football powerhouse like Ghana is excelling as a result of the investment they have made in their junior teams and football academies which act as the feeder teams to the Black stars. Kenya has an abundant pool of young talent which if not properly groomed will just go to waste. As am currently writing this piece the national under-20 team is currently holding former KPL champions and premier league heavyweights, Sofapaka! Does it mean that our football bosses aren’t reading in between the lines? Will they still wait for a ‘foreigner’ for Kenya to excel? Don’t they realize that if you want the fruit you must climb the tree? Stop expecting smooth traffic flow in the highway without preparing the feeder road!! If the Francis Kahatas and the Enock Agwandas are to lead us to Glory, if they are to fit in the shoes of the Joe Kadenges and J.J Masigas, then we have to invest in them, ensure they prepare well, lift their morale and confidence because the future of our football lies in the junior teams. If we have football academies, strong U-17, U-20 and U-23 teams, surely Harambee stars will be a power to reckon with!!! That’s my football! July 18, 2012 @Ndungu_Ndungu