Derby giving youth taste of good football
FC Talanta midfielder Alex Lughanji (left) vies with Bandari midfielder Whyvonne Isuza during their pre-season friendly at Public Service grounds in Nairobi on August 20, 2022.
What you need to know:
- Bandari Youth lost the well-attended match 2-1, but it was a perfect example of how people can be united by football.
- The online banter between the two teams was on another level. Let’s encourage such vibrant matches to grow our football.
For a football team to attain its objectives, it must have a solid investment in youth.
Good investment in youth academy ensures steady supply of talent to feed the main team, and revenue if the players are sold to other clubs.
Investment in the youth has always been a key focus for the Kenya Ports Authority-sponsored Bandari FC.
Bandari boasts one of the most vibrant youth academies in Kenya. The youth academy not only feeds the main team, but also supplies talent to the local league.
But Bandari FC also has talent scouts who focus on identifying talent at a young age, and ensuring it is nurtured to fruition.
In its football programmes, Bandari has ensured that football talent from the Coast region is nurtured through the academy.
Bandari’s youth team which plays in the Mombasa Premier League run by Mombasa County Football Association (MCFA) is among the top teams in the lower-tier league.
The lads have dominated the league in the past, winning it a record seven times. In five of those occasions, the team has won the league in a row.
The team has also produced the league’s top scorer for six straight seasons.
This week, the boys had a taste of the Mvita derby when they took on Mvita Youngsters. The match is one of the most popular match-ups in the league.
Since the inception of the MCFA, meetings between the two sides is the highlight of the season, and the rivalry between the two teams has grown from season to season as each seeks to take the bragging rights.
This year, things got even juicer. Before the latest clash between the teams, Bandari were lying second in the league with 50 points in 25 games, just a point behind leaders Mvita who were on 51 points after 25 matches with eight games to go before end of season.
The derby even drew reactions from football stakeholders in the county, politicians, musicians, and former governor Ali Hassan Joho, Senator Mohammed Faki, and Mombasa politician Suleiman Shahbal.
Tanzanian superstar Ali Kiba wished the team the best of luck before the match.
Bandari Youth lost the well-attended match 2-1, but it was a perfect example of how people can be united by football.
The online banter between the two teams was on another level. Let’s encourage such vibrant matches to grow our football.
