Happy New Year to you all. I want
the Harambee Stars job. Yes, you heard that right. I want to be the coach (I
prefer manager) of the Kenya national senior football team. And no, it’s not
just empty (bordering gibberish) start-of-the-year talk.
In a week’s time Africa’s crème
de la crème will be in South Africa to square it out for the chance to be
called Champions of Africa in the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations extravaganza.
Predictably, for us Kenyans we will have to adopt other nations to support as
we sit back and marvel at the quality of talent on display down south.
Exciting, huh? Nothing could be further from the truth as our national anthem
will not be sung even once before any match at the tournament. But hey, what’s
the big fuss? We are quite used to this, right?
When I heard on the twitter
streets a few days ago that the Football Kenya Federation (FKF) were on the
hunt for the coach of the national team, I thought, ‘why don’t they give me
that job?’ In fact, I instantly tweeted that I wanted the job (well, first of
all I said that the name ‘Harambee Stars’ would have to go). My friend John Aggrey, who is an expert on local football, told me to prepare my CV and submit
it to FKF for consideration. To which I replied that they should probably check
my twitter timeline and read my thoughts on the game on my blog. Admittedly I
just said that in my usual attempt at online humor to appear funny and gain
followers (I desperately need to hit the one thousand followers mark soon).
Later on though, I thought about it and realized that just maybe, there could
have been an element of seriousness in that spate of tweeting.
Harambee Stars needs a fresh
maverick approach, and in fact this is not only limited to the national team,
but should be extended to the running of Kenyan football in general. We need to
redefine ourselves and the kind of football we would like to be associated
with. That is the first step in making progress as a footballing nation.
Somebody from a faraway country should be able to, by just having a 3-minute
glance of the screen, say that ‘Yes, that is the Harambee Stars playing’. Yes,
identity is what I’m talking about. What type of football do we play? What kind
of formation do we employ? What color is our home jersey? Which kit manufacturer
provides our playing and training kits? In which stadium do we play our home
matches? I’m an avid football fan but even I can’t answer all of those
questions. How much more difficult do you think it is for an average fan or
even a foreign football expert to try and answer that?
Of course I’m assuming that the
next to be installed as the coach of Stars will be tasked with steering the
team to through to the wilderness of the qualifiers and safely to the promised
land that is the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. Poor bastard, I pity him (even
if it happens to be me, ha!). It simply won’t come to pass. By the way the
World Cup is actually being held next year. Sorry, had to put that into that
dramatic context. In 2003, Kenyans were ranked as the most optimistic people in
the world (I think). Even if that unprecedented optimism were to be lifted to
this year, it wouldn’t be enough to earn us that elusive World Cup ticket.
That’s the damning reality. Things are that bad. And precisely I do not envy
whoever will take up that job (well, and also because I want it for myself).
In July last year, after Spain
cantered to triumph at the Euros, I wrote something about how I thought their
victory would (or should) impact on the football world. Basically I
vociferously endorsed La FuriaRoja’s style and pointed that every team at every
level of the game had to emulate that. That is what I would push for Kenya to
adopt. The problem and maybe what would ultimately deny me the job, is that for
it to be successful, it would require the utmost degree of excruciating
patience. Let me ask you, describe the football that Harambee Stars play. Don’t
worry, I’ve got all day, I’ll wait. This is sad, but that’s what we should
rectify. We have to play football that has purpose, football that is consistent
irrespective of who’s playing, football that is tactically sound, and
ultimately football that is superior to our opponents. My vision of this
football (heavily borrowed from Spain) is this: When we have the ball, they
don’t have the ball. You need the ball to score. They can’t score, but we can.
When we pass that ball (in a circle) among us, they have to chase. They become
tired (and bored) and leave spaces. We run into those spaces, receive the ball
and give it. Then inculcating our technical ability and
individual brilliance, we create chances and the goals come. When we lose the
ball, we hunt it back as a pack (considering we’re less tired), retrieve it and
repeat the cycle.
It is easier said than done, of
course. The real test is finding the players, getting them to bond (they need
to play and fight for each other), teach them on paper this style of football
and painstakingly make them repeat and repeat the knowledge imparted on them on
the training ground till they can hack it competitively on the pitch. If this
can be achieved, then you’ll never have to worry about tactics. So long as the
tactics you opt for before a match has a goalkeeper in it, this will always
come good for you and your team. Of course this can only be done with a proper
youth set-up in place. I say youth because well, you can’t teach an old dog new
tricks. Heck, it might turn against you and bite you, give you rabies and turn
you into another dog. True story.
In this respect, I would push for
the creation of a national football school. Yes, school. Majorly it is a
football school, but ethics and life skills will be incorporated too. Footballers
need to realize that they are ambassadors of their families, communities,
towns, counties, the nation and humanity in general. Alternative, no, also, it
should be imperative for the country’s elite and stable football clubs to
establish these youth schools of their own, operating under the above
blueprint. I’m talking about the GorMahias, the AFC Leopards, the Tuskers,
theSofapakas of this country. After all, aren’t clubs in existence to provide
the national team with a perpetual pool of talented professional footballers?
Absolutely, thank you.
I can’t elucidate further than
that for now, I wish I could, but then again it would be too long for you to
read. Look, in the next 8-10 years or so, if we don’t change we aren’t going to
achieve anything that we only dream of. I know I’m barely into my twenties, but
why not give me the job for that period and let me build what will sustain you
for a lifetime at least? Yes, I have no coaching experience, but that’s largely
due to the fact that nobody my age would have ever gotten time to try that. I
have something that you’re going to turn millions of stones to unearth…a unique
concoction of football passion and brains. Anyway, all said and done, I’m just
a boy who loves football and my country and wants us to be counted among the
best. That’s all.
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