Chance for Kenya juniors to ride on Keisuke Honda success

Honda Estilo Company Limited's Overseas Business Department Africa Region Director Motoki Futamura makes a point during an interview at Nation Centre on January 17, 2018. PHOTO | VINCENT OPIYO |

What you need to know:

  • Honda, a 31-year-old Japan international, has enjoyed as a stellar career as an attacking midfielder at top European clubs CSKA Moscow (Russia) and Italy’s AC Milan.

Japan football star Keisuke Honda will next week launch a grassroots football programme in Kenya that aims to unearth “the next Wanyama and Olunga.”

This programme, dubbed “Africa Dream Soccer”, is spearheaded by Honda Estilo Limited and will, according to its Africa regional director Motoki Futamura, seek to identify about 600 talented but needy footballers aged below 13 in the next six months.

Thereafter, the players will be nurtured and trained by a technical team comprising local and Japanese coaches over the next five years, and depending on their potential, handed opportunities at Kenyan Premier League clubs, or in Japan and Austria where Honda has established other academies and partnerships.
“We had planned to launch this programme last year but the politics in Kenya was too much. Instead, we moved to Rwanda,” Futamura explained on Wednesday, during an interview at Nation Centre.

Futamura’s team comprising coaches Shuzo Sakamoto and Daichi Motomatsu alongside Ligi Ndogo academy’s management, has primarily settled on working with the 500 or so children from the Magoso Primary school in Kibera.

The trials will commence in Nairobi on January 27.

And there could be much more in the offing considering Honda’s team already own a majority stake at top Uganda Premier League side Bright Stars.

“When Honda visited Uganda last year, he witnessed much potential. “But compared to West Africa, there is not much talent in East Africa at the moment. The difference is in the education the players receive.”

This programme will, meanwhile be supported by motor vehicle import and export company Car-Tana.com and SATO, a company that manufactures sanitary toilets.

Harambee Stars captain Victor Wanyama and forward Michael Olunga, the latter who scored three goals for Girona FC in the Spanish La Liga on Saturday, are the only Kenyans featuring in top European leagues at the moment.

Honda, a 31-year-old Japan international, has enjoyed as a stellar career as an attacking midfielder at top European clubs CSKA Moscow (Russia) and Italy’s AC Milan.

He currently plays for Mexican giants Pachua.