Kenyan football is in shambles, leaders need to rethink, says Muguna
By Vincent Voiyoh, July 13, 2022Harambee Stars creative midfielder Kenneth Muguna says for Kenya to excel at international fora, the country urgently needs to go back to the drawing board and sports administrators be better organised for Fifa to lift its suspension to enable he nation to boost is performance.
In an interview with our sister radio station, Milele FM Sports, Muguna said the country needs to follow the footsteps of other African and European nations as far as football development is concerned.
“We need to be better organised as a country. That is the main thing about football. If you look at football giants in the world like Germany, Brazil and other countries, football is like a religion to them. It is like going to church every Sunday. You have the passion that pushes you to attend the church service. We need to reach such a level with our game and that can happen if our planning is good,” he said.
Kenya failed in the quest to reach AFCON 2021 failing in the qualifying campaign against Egypt and Comoros who successfully booked the tickets to Cameroon at the expense of Kenya. Harambee Stars also had a poor show during the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers in 2021 against Mali,Rwanda and Uganda.
Muguna who joined Tanzania’s premier league outfit Azam FC as free agent has also defended Harambee Stars player selection saying every player that has received a call up for national duty deserved the chance.
“Every player that plays top flight football deserves a call up,it is usually a matter of chance.Even for me sometimes the team is named and I find myself out, so it doesn’t mean that I should be in regularly.When I am out it means someone else was better than me,” Muguna said.
The 26 year-old combative player is optimistic of achieving his childhood dream in featuring at the prestigious African Cup of Nations with Harambee Stars and playing as many matches as possible for the National team colours.
“So far I haven’t achieved much with the Kenya team.I have not gone to the Afcon,last time when they went in Egypt in 2019 I was just fan just like you.I would to reach there and also challenge for the trophy.Its not a matther of having well known players to accomplish that but we follow the example of Zambia in 2012 when they won the Cup with almost 90 per cent new players,” he said.
Muguna who previously featured for Gor Mahia,Western Stima and FK Tirana in Albania managed to feature for Azam FC in 25 outings last season,with the ice cream makers finishing third behind eventual champions Yanga and Simba who finished second.