Football Kenya Federation (FKF) Chairman Nick Mwendwa has for the first time spoken on Harambee Stars’ humiliation in the hands of Mali National Football Team.
Speaking at the interview with NTV, the chairman was quick to admit that there was no way Kenya’s Harambee Stars would mount a challenge against a well-organized Mali national football team, The Eagles. On Sunday, Harambee Stars suffered yet another major blow on their way to represent Africa at the 2022 Fifa World Cup in Qatar when the home team was humiliated with 0-1 win in favor on Malians.
Sunday’s lose came after another sad outing in Morocco where Mali handed Kenya 5-0 thorough thumping. During yesterday’s interview, Mr. Mwendwa admitted that the current crop of players that Kenya has cannot win anything. “Even if you bring Mourinho, or even Arteta here, the work that needs to be done is that we need to bring talent on the table; for you to win, we need quality players,” Mwendwa admitted.
“So, let’s look at Mali, for example, are we better than Mali? The answer is that we are not because we have not brought players to that level,” he said.
The former Kariobangi Sharks boss has been accused of mismanagement of the national team. Many sources have put his leadership skills into question following the manner in which he had dismissed two former coaches. Former Harambee Stars coach Jacob Mulee had started with the team, and was expected to be the man on the wheel for the qualifications for next year’s show piece in Qatar. But, Mulee is said to have left the coaching job – without giving any detailed explanation to why he took that bold step.
Apart from the way he had handled coaches, the FKF chairman has been accused of influencing the selection of players into the national team. A number of players from Kariobangi Sharks, (A club that is directly linked to Mwendwa) who were not seen to have what it takes to don national colors, have been featuring the national team, raising questions to what criterion the coaches have been using to arrive at such a bad selection.
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