The Sofapaka forward believes the national team will succeed if it has a continuous source of talent from development
Sofapaka striker Ronald Okoth has praised Football Kenya Federation (FKF) after Kenya’s progress at the Cecafa U15 Challenge Cup.
“We should have structures which ensure there is a constant flow of good players into the national team,” Okoth told Goal.
“Youth development ensures there is progress in all the footballing areas and at the end, success is reflected at national level.”
The former Gor Mahia striker spoke about the Kenya U15 team which toured Eritrea for the just concluded Challenge Cup.
The juniors reached the finals where they were defeated 4-0 by Uganda in the inaugural tournament.
“The current federation is doing some good job because the U15 team was in Eritrea for Cecafa and the team has to be kept together and maintained,” Okoth continued.
“In two years, they will be mature enough and ready to deliver for the senior team.”
Okoth added there were lessons to be learned from Kenya’s unsuccessful participation in the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) in Egypt.
“As a nation, we have to pick positives from Afcon even though we did not perform to expectations but there is something to learn from participation only,” he explained.
“It is a matter of what went wrong and how to rectify it in future.”
The former Mathare United forward also praised the FKF for appointing Francis Kimanzi and Zedekiah Otieno as Harambee Stars head coach and assistant respectively.
“They [Kimanzi and Otieno] are up to the task and it is all about trusting who is around locally, and is ready to take on the task,” Okoth added.
“The FKF should be lauded for giving them the job and should also give Kimanzi and Otieno time to settle with the team. At the end, progress and stability will be witnessed at Harambee Stars.”
Kimanzi and Otieno were appointed after Sebastien Migne left when Kenya failed to progress in the African Nations Championship (Chan) qualifications against Tanzania.
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