Football
Kimanzi: Brazil 2014 tall order
CHRIS OMOLLO | NATION Models pose with Kenya Breweries Limited’s Sh110 million dummy cheque after the brewer announced its sponsorship package for the Kenya national football team at the Intercontinental, Nairobi, on February 21, 2012. Prime minister Raila Odinga was the chief guest at the ceremony.
Posted Wednesday, February 22 2012 at 20:27
Harambee Stars coach Francis Kimanzi has cautioned that qualifying for the World Cup will not be easy, even with good organisation and preparations.
“We have to be realistic. Even top nations in Europe with more resources fail to make it to the World Cup,” Kimanzi said.
“For a small nation like Kenya, we have to prepare even more. We have to mobilise the players and the resources to, in the long term, build a team that can compete at the very highest level.”
Kimanzi welcomed the three-year, Sh110 million Tusker sponsorship of Harambee Stars saying it would enable the national team access more resources to prepare a good team.
Kenya Breweries Limited on Tuesday officially launched their Road to 2014 World Cup in ceremony where their managing director, Baker Magunda, presented a dummy cheque for Sh110 million to Football Kenya Federation chairman Sam Nyamweya. Magunda said the sponsorship was part of the brewers’ dream to inspire one east African team to qualify for the 2013 African Cup of Nation and the 2014 World Cup.
Nyamweya said the federation would spare no effort in achieving that dream for Harambee Stars, who have never qualified for a World Cup.
Kimanzi, in a refreshingly candid interview, said Kenya was capable of getting to the World Cup but needed to build a side, “step by step.”
“Forming a great team that can stay competitive is a process. It is like building a house. You have to go block by block and level by level. You cannot, for example, compare Harambee Stars players with Cote d’Ivoire players who are world class but we can get there.”
Kimanzi said his immediate goal was compose a team that could competitively vie for the 2013 African Cup of Nations berth. “In the longer term I want to monitor every deserving player locally and abroad and give them all a chance to prove their worth with the national team.”
Kimanzi said he knew of at least five Kenyans playing football abroad whom he intended to invite for trials as he built his side. Kimanzi was abruptly appointed head coach last November for his second term with Harambee Stars.
He soon stirred excitement when he led Harambee Stars to a 7-0 demolition of minnows Seychelles but disappointed a month later with a group exit at last year’s Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup. Considered the best local coach, the former league-winning manager with Mathare United faces huge expectations of at least taking Stars to South Africa next year.
RSS