Junior Starlets striker Valarie Nekesa during a training session at Club Atletico Pantoja in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic on October 19, 2024.
In Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic
On October 17, history was written when the Kenyan national anthem was played at a Fifa World Cup.
The occasion was the mandatory pre-match ceremony before debutantes Kenya played England in their Fifa Under-17 Women’s World Cup Group “C” opening match at the CFC Stadium in Santiago, Dominican Republic.
“Wow! How do I even explain the feeling of hearing the Kenyan national anthem being played at a World Cup for the first time in history? It is a moment I had always dreamt of when the qualifiers started and I was selected to the team. I could not believe it was happening,” said an excited Valarie Nekesa, one of the stand out players of the Junior Starlets team.
Even as the diminutive Nekesa, a Form Three student at Madira Girls High School in Vihiga County, was dabbling with history on that momentous day, little did she know that she would be adding another script to this remarkable journey.
A week later, the lively, hardworking, 17-year-old etched her name in the history books again by becoming the first Kenyan to score a goal in a Fifa World Cup.
She netted Junior Starlets’ opening goal in the 14th minute of their match against fan-cied Mexico at the Felix Sanchez Stadium in Santo Domingo.
Midfielder Lorna Faith scored Kenya’s other goal for the historic 2-1 victory.
“I always had a dream of playing in the World Cup but I never knew it would come that soon. Scoring was another dream come true. That goal is for my country and my team mates,” said the 147cm tall Nekesa, the 2023 Sports Personality Of the Year Awards (Soya) Most Promising Female Footballer.
Junior Starlets strikers Valarie Nekesa.
“I know a lot of girls back home are looking up to me. I want to encourage them to keep believing. As we go back home, we have picked positives from the tournament and I believe we will be back better and stronger to compete,” added Nekesa at Fiesta Do-minican Hotel in Santiago on Thursday.
She stands out as one of the most experienced players in the squad and is the assis-tant captain to Elizabeth Ochaka. If Kenya were to score at the World Cup the most likely culprit was always going to be Nekesa. And so it came to pass.
Starlets attended a three-week training camp in Spain where they played three friendly matches, beating local sides Intercity Femenino 4-1, Valencia CF Women 4-1 before drawing 1-1 against Portugal Under-17.
Who else but Nekesa scored two goals against Valencia and a goal each against Inter-city and the Dominican Republic in a 3-1 friendly international win.
In the 2022/23 FKF Women’s Division One League, starting out as a 15-year-old, she won the season’s Golden Boot with a staggering 37 goals from 22 matches, as she powered her side, Soccer Assassins to promotion to the Women’s Premier League.
Nekesa favours wearing jersey number nine.
She also plays for Kenya Under-20 also known as Rising Starlets, underlining her special qualities.
Rising Starlets were knocked out of the Under-20 qualifiers in the third round last No-vember, falling 3-2 on aggregate to Cameroon.
Born in 2007 in Bungoma County and raised in Murang’a County, Nekesa followed in the footsteps of her elder brother, defender Philip Makhoha, who plays for Mombasa Olympic Club.
The Junior Starlets attacking midfielder, who says she loves any meat that has ugali, started playing football while in Class Seven, inspired by her football hero Arsenal winger Bukayo Saka.
Kenya lost 2-0 to England and 3-0 to North Korea to end the chase for a knock-out stage.
The team left the Dominican Republic on Thursday for Kenya via Turkey.
They are expected to arrive at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi on Saturday at 3:15am aboard a Turkish Airlines.
