AFC, 12 years, 27 coaches and counting...
AFC Leopards coach Patrick Aussems looks on during their Football Kenya Federation Premier League match against Bandari at the Mbaraki Sports Club on February 19, 2021.
What you need to know:
- Teams that have won the World Cup have solid football management, and development of local talent is vibrant. Our economy relies a lot on imports.
- We must start producing great and respectable local coaches, and to do that, we must first give them a chance to nurture their abilities.
“Gilbert Selebwa; Edward Manoah; Nick Yakhama Chris Makokha; Robert Matano; Dino Kitavi ; Roberto Bollen; Robert Matano; Nick Yakhama; Jan Koops…. Take a deep breath first before we continue rolling out the names.
Mickey Weche; Tom Olaba;Luc Eymael ; James Nandwa; Pieter de Jongh; Zdravko Logarusic; Jan Koops; Ivan Minnaert ;Ezekiel Akwana; Stewart Hall: Dorian Marin; Robert Matano; Dennis Kitambi ; Rodolpho Zapata…by this time if you follow Kenyan football, you may know where we are drifting to and you may have started wondering why these people are too many!
They are all coaches! Let’s breath deeply again and keep them rolling.
Tom Juma; Nikola Kavazovic; Marko Vasilijevic; Cassa Mbungo; Anthony Kimani; Thomas Trucha; Kimani; Patrick Aussems…among others.
Now, we can breath with ease because we have finished the roll call.
All these people - and some of them appear twice - have been coaches of AFC Leopards since 2009! The great Ingwe has really been churning them out.
Twenty-seven coaches in barely 12 years is just too much. The Den is very hot.
Some of these coaches only stayed for two weeks! We have had to list them all, even at the risk of boring our readers, since it is the only way to show them the management problems that have stunted the giants for long.
There are no systems or structures in most top local teams. The only team that has a semblance of trying to build themselves systematically seems to be Mathare United.
Compared to AFC Leopards, Mathare have had only nine coaches since 1994 and what we find admirable is all the tacticians - except Jonathan Niva - were trained by the club and played for the team too!
Where Ingwe get their coaches from, only they know. Last week, we tried to explain why it was wrong to by-pass AFC stand in coach Kimani for a foreign one, and most of the responses to the column were abusive and partisan.
When we take time to highlight an issue, we do so with the hope that it can generate some sober debate and help Kenyan football to move forward.
Teams that have won the World Cup have solid football management, and development of local talent is vibrant. Our economy relies a lot on imports.
We must start producing great and respectable local coaches, and to do that, we must first give them a chance to nurture their abilities.
