Stop the mischief! All national team players earned their pay
Kenya players celebrate their goal against Seychelles during their 2026 Fifa World Cup qualifier at the Stade Felix Houphouet-Boigny in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire on November 20, 2023.
What you need to know:
- Heck! If the national team selectors can’t stomach our players, then we will be happy if they don’t get called up!
- So long as we keep winning the league and playing continental football, then we really don’t care whatever
As strange as it may sound, football is littered with coaches who, at one time or the other, have attempted to deny players the chance to feature for their respective national teams.
In other instances, some tacticians have always released players to the national team on condition that they must be drafted into the starting lineup.
A case in point was in 2019 when Bayern Munich locked horns with the German football association (DFB) after getting wind that the then head coach Joachim Low was planning to select Barcelona custodian Marc-Andre ter Stegen ahead of regular starter Manuel Neuer.
So upset was Bayern President Uli Hoeness that he dared DEB to make good their plot. A fuming Hoeness warned that should such a thing happen, then Bayern wouldn’t release any player to the national team in future.
But what happens if a club sends a player to the national team then the federation or the government selectively wires money to certain players in the squad while leaving out others?
Apparently, that is the predicament of some players in our national team. I’m saying this after independently establishing that our star players Benson Omalla and Rooney Onyango are yet to receive their allowances for representing Kenya in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers against Gabon and Seychelles in November last year.
It’s a shame that more than two months down the line certain players who did national duty for our country are still chasing their allowances yet they were outstanding in the two matches. Why would players who only warmed the bench in the said matches receive their allowances ahead of those who took to the field?
The Kenyan national team largely depends on government funding. The government usually releases the funds after being presented with the budget from the federation.
Which begs the question, were the monies released not enough to cater for the whole squad?
If that is the case, then why hasn’t Football Kenya Federation explained the situation? And which criteria was used to pay some players and omit others?
Whatever the case, all the players who made the squad earned their pay. It only makes sense to disburse the allowances timely and to all the squad members.
Is it a mere coincidence that one of the affected players has to be Omalla? The same young lad who fought tooth and nail to be selected to the national team.
He then justified his selection by netting one of Harambee Stars goals in that 5-0 drubbing of Seychelles on November 20, 2023. Now this? Denying him his hard-earned money?
If you ask me, I read a lot of mischief in this narrative. It almost appears to be a calculated move to frustrate certain players. There is no prestige for a player to endure all the frustrations that comes with a national team call up only to be denied some meagre allowances, which he deserves anyway.
If including Gor Mahia players in Harambee Stars squad is such a big deal for the handlers of the national team, then our players would be better off focusing on club duty.
Heck! If the national team selectors can’t stomach our players, then we will be happy if they don’t get called up!
So long as we keep winning the league and playing continental football, then we really don’t care whatever happens to Harambee Stars with average players from other clubs.
