French wine welcomes new man Michel
PHOTO | FILE Former France football coach Henri Michel takes Cote d’Ivoire players through the paces during a training session.
What you need to know:
- Five-star cocktails toasted as FKF invite coach at the Intercontinental
- At position 126, Kenya is at its worst ranking and it will be Michel’s work to take the country back the top
- Michel was picked from over 60 foreign coaches who applied for the job
New Harambee Stars coach, Frenchman Henri Michel, was unveiled at a colourful evening cocktail ceremony at the Nairobi Intercontinental Hotel on Tuesday, as he took over the mantle to lead the national football team.
But he will realise that the task ahead will not be as tasteful as the French wine served by the five star hotel’s staff last night.
For the next three years, if he manages to stay that long, Michel will tread on a bumpy and murky path as he struggles to uplift the country’s football which is at its lowest ebb.
He came with a promise and Kenyans are expecting him to deliver.
“We welcome you to Kenya. It’s a great country but the 30 million plus Kenyans are now looking to you to rebuild the country’s football,” Kenya Federation chairman Sam Nyamweya told the former French national coach on his arrival.
Excitement
Michel was unveiled as a new product in the market, colourfully, with almost the entire football fraternity and sorority represented, with the government and the corporate world also in attendance.
Excitement permeated as everyone at last evening’s event believing he is a fresh breath of life that Kenyan football so badly needed, a departure from the past where local coaches have done nothing but failed the national team.
At position 126, Kenya is at its worst ranking and it will be Michel’s work to take the country back the top.
“I do not envy the burden you carry ahead of you, but you have our support,” Sports minister Paul Otuoma said.
Michel was picked from over 60 foreign coaches who applied for the job that became vacant after Francis Kimanzi was redeployed.
He comes at a time when Kenya is already out of the race for the 2013 African Cup of Nations and on the exit door in the race for a ticket to the 2014 World Cup.
He brings a lot of experience to Kenya and many hope he will stay to succeed as he has elsewhere.
Michel managed the French national team in 1984 guiding the gold medal at the Olympics and the third place at the 1986 World Cup.
He knows the rugged terrain of African football having been in the continent for two decades now since he first coached Cameroon in 1994.
