The Kenyan football team has for a long time been facing up and downs.The Harambee Stars would do really well in one tournament and do the opposite in the next.
Simply, consistency in both the team players and the management has always been an issue and the formation of a new federation under Nick Mwendwa and Coach Stanley Okumbi straightened the team a little bit but did not get us to where we are supposed to be.
So the question still lingers, who will save Kenyan football? This prayer might have been answered last week when the federation hired a new coach, Paul Put.
[caption caption="Coach Paul Put being unveiled as the new Harambee Stars head"]
[/caption][caption caption="Coach Paul Put being unveiled as the new Harambee Stars head"]
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A recent interview revealed Mr Put’s side that most Kenyans will appreciate going forward.
For instance, Put led Burkina Faso to the 2011 African Cup of Nations final where they narrowly lost to Nigeria.
Apart from Burkina Faso, Put had also worked with Gambia’s Senior and the under 17 team. Under his leadership, the senior team qualified for the 2008 African Cup of Nations whereas the under 17 team won the Cup of Nations in 2009.
Mr Put is also known to be a strict coach who does not entertain laziness and indiscipline. This is important since for a team to perform well there must be a tough grind, commitment, and discipline.
“When I took over in Burkina Faso in 2011, the fans were highly disillusioned, some players were even afraid of being called up for national team duty but we changed all that.
“We can do it with Kenya as well. The most important thing is to be able to get everyone around the team but at the same time I am no microwave (oven). It will take time but I remain very confident we can do it,” he stated in a recent interview with one of the local sports publications.
[caption caption="Coach Paul Put celebrating a win during his time with Burkina Faso"]
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Put combined with Okumbi could be the first remedy to our football performance headache, but there is a greater need to for all Kenyans to come together and support our sports industry for us to cure that recurrent cancer of poor performance and talent migration.
This won’t start by heading to the stadium and supporting Harambee Stars, it all begins by highlighting those small facets of talent in our estates and posting their interesting stories here. This will be the first step to lucrative and competitive sports in Kenya since you will have already given this unknown talent exposure and the right stakeholders will take note.
Success involves teamwork so if we want to be among the best we better start embracing our own sportsmen and women.
Tujiamini.
