Factory of Kenyan football talent now wants shot at league

After emerging as the best talent provider for top Kenyan Premier League clubs, Fisa Academy now wants to be part of the competition.

The South B-based academy produced some of the talents that tantalised the 2010 season. Among these were 2010 Young Player of the Year runner-up Musa Mohammed of Gor Mahia and team mate Kevin Omondi, who was also an initial nominee but was controversially dropped, Tusker sensation Paul Were has registered to participate in next season’s Nationwide League.

“We appreciate the fact that we have become the academy of choice for most of the KPL clubs,” said the director of the academy, Maurice Owuor.

“We will not stop that mission of being one of the best talent providers for Kenyan football, but we also want to expose our boys to competitive football and that is why we have registered for the Nationwide League.”

Become best club in country

The academy, which also plucked Czech-based Patrick Oboya and Maurice Odhiambo of Kenya Commercial Bank from the Mukuru slums and made them stars and also nurtured Ibrahim Kitawi, believe it can become one of the best clubs in the country.

“We have pondered this over the years. The academy will remain strong, scouting talent from the under-10-years age group, but we will also have a club that will battle to play in the top league soon,” said Charles Omondi, who is a pioneer coach at the academy, said.

Owuor however says Fisa will not withdraw its players who are already loaned to clubs.

“We own the players but we want them to continue their development in the KPL because they have shown they are maturing well,” he said.

“We have a huge pool to pick players from.”

Some of Fisa’s players in the KPL are set for professional careers abroad, among them Wer,e who is bound for Sweden in June, while Omondi has interested scouts from European clubs.

Fisa has also elicited interest from a top international kiting company which hopes to start talks with the club to become its official kit sponsor.

With a national youth development programme virtually absent despite millions of shillings going to Football Kenya Limited for the purpose, Fisa has led by example and set a target to provide Harambee Stars, with the entire squad within the next five years.

Capped at the national team

Oboya, Kitawi, Were and Omondi have already been capped at the national team while Odhiambo and Mohammed have played for the national Under-20 squads.

A Catholic University law lecturer, Dr Maurice Ojwang’, started the academy as a centre to rescue young boys from the Mukuru slums in South B from drug abuse and other social vices. A Catholic University law lecturer, Dr Maurice Ojwang’.

The pioneer graduates of the academy – Oboya and Odhiambo – were plucked from squalor in the slums. Odhiambo had dropped out of school after his mother passed on.

“When we saw the kind of talent these boys had we decided to set up an academy and go deep in the slums to scout for more boys. The challenge was to encourage them to go back to school because some of them had dropped out for lack of fees,” said Owuor.

Premiership and Nationwide coaches line up for the over 50 boys aged below 10 to 19 from an academy that started with one ball during evening training at South B Police Lines grounds.

Besides imparting footballing skills, Fisa also sources for secondary school scholarships for the boys. Omondi and Musa were in the squad that won the national secondary schools title with Langata High two years ago while Were was in Nairobi’s Milimani.

Highest standards of discipline

“We are handled well while young, taught how to handle ourselves and individuals with the highest standards of discipline and also on the technical aspects of the game,” said Kitawi.

“Without Fisa, I would probably not be where I am today,” added Omondi.