The former Harambee Stars coach disagrees with the FKF boss on the country lacking quality players after two defeats by Les Aigles
Wazito FC head coach Francis Kimanzi has called on Football Kenya Federation President Nick Mwendwa to stop shifting blame after the team suffered back-to-back defeats in their World Cup qualifying matches against Mali.
The Kenya national team’s hopes of playing in Qatar 2022 were ended by Les Aigles who beat them 5-0 in the first meeting held in Morocco and then sealed a double over them after a 1-0 win at Nyayo Stadium in Nairobi three days later.
Speaking after the two games, FKF boss Mwendwa openly claimed that Kenya had suffered the defeats because they don’t have quality players.
Kimanzi, who was the Harambee Stars coach before he was fired on October 20, 2020, and replaced by Jacob ‘Ghost’ Mulee, has disagreed with the FKF supremo insisting Kenya has abundant talent and that people should work on ways to solve the problems.
‘Let us stop shifting blame’
“Whoever is saying Kenya has no quality players is insulting the coaches in the country who work tirelessly to nurture the young lads!” Kimanzi said as quoted by Arocho Live.
“I led a team of talented Kenyans to Egypt and picked a historic 1-1 draw against a fancied side just before I was unceremoniously dismissed. Were these hired foreigners?
“Let’s stop shifting blame!
“Our problem is elsewhere, we need to urgently address it once and for all!”
‘Even Mourinho cannot help Kenya’
On making his claims, Mwendwa said: “Even if you bring Mourinho, even if you bring Arteta [they will struggle with Harambee Stars].
“The work that needs to be done is that we need to bring the talent to the table. For you to win, you need quality players. You guys know Moussa Djenepo, do we have a player like him? We have to build him and that is the reason we are training coaches to go to the grassroots and find our Moussa Djenepo, they can find a [Yves] Bissouma to compete with the likes of Mali.”
The two defeats saw Kenya drop to position three in Group E as they have two points from four matches, Mali are top on 10 points while Uganda are third with eight points.
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