That was a bogus U-17 team that was selected based on kujuana. None of them were selected on merit. And thats why none of them have amounted to anything in football. That is the problem with kenya football. Youth teams are a joke. They are either poorly selected or are stocked full of over-age players.

Have you ever wondered why Kenya has never qualified for the Africa youth cup either U20 or u17 ?

Without a solid youth foundation to build on, how can football succeed ?

Oh and by the way, that so called Kenya team did not draw with Somalia. they lost to somalia in humiliating fashion

why are people sugar coating this? KENYA cannot play football! We LOVE football but that does not translate to being GOOD at football!

I remember saying in one of the posts that if you want to see real talent go to the secondary school term ball games ndio utajua kuna talent the problem as @Alba had put it there is no youth structure to help this young talented fellows...imagine if we get like 100 kids aged 14 and below from the primo games...put them in an academy for the nxt 4 years where they learn languages spanish,portugese,french,italian...business maths kidogo etc...they get super training facilities...gyms,well manicured pitches...then after the 4 years make partnerships with european clubs who will take them in for some few months...it will be so easy getting a super national team that will dazzle and bring the trophies home...siku hizi hata CECAFA ni shida surely

I am no soccer fan and couldn't really care if the game was banned, but that doesn't mean I do not have an opinion on the same.

Legend has it that when Kagame became president in our 48th county of Rwanda, he was appalled at the poor state of soccer administration in his country. So one day he and his top army bosses dressed in their official military regalia,then called a meeting with the local soccer administrators. once they were seated, they were then told to open the folders in front of them. Inside was an already printed resignation letter with the name of each of the officials and all that was required was their signature at the bottom of the page. Of course, since they all wanted to walk out of the room alive, they all signed and were duly relieved of their duties, leaving Kagame to appoint new soccer administrators with a vision and passion for the game. And since there was proof that they resigned, FIFA had no reason to raise a ruckus. Leo hii Rwanda wako wapi?

The point I'm trying to bring up is we really need to think out of the box if we're ever gonna progress in matters soccer. Even if it means withdrawing from all international tournaments for 10-15yrs while we put our house in order, so be it. FIFA wakileta nyenyenye, our spanking new digital president should calmly but firmly tell them to take a hike in such a way that they actually look forward to the trip.

While at it, I always ask, all these young men & women that I see during school games, some extremely brilliant players, what becomes of them once they clear form 4? And what became of the CocaCola youth soccer 'clinic' that used to be so famous a while back?

This is all innacurate.
Kenyans can be as good at football as anybody. Whether a country is good at any sport depends on the sporting culture. Kenyans are not as passionate about football as other countries are. If you happen to travel to places like Zambia you will be amazed to see the sheer number of young kids playing in the streets, at churches and at playing grounds all over. Meanwhile in kenya kids nowadays have nowehere to play. All the playing grounds are being grabbed. 60% of Nairobians live in slums and as you know, slums have no space to play at all.

In a country like Nigeria, football is so important that state governments are the ones that sponsor teams. The governor deems football important enough to allocate funds so that the team can do well. Teams like Heartland and Enyimba which have won Africa cup are actually sponsored by Imo stateand Abia state respectively. Meanwhile in Kenya we would rather spend ksh 700m building an office for the former president. Meanwhile most stadia in Kenya were built in the 1940s and 1930s by Mkoloni and have not been upgraded.

Culture is the reason Kenya is good at sevens. Rugby culture does not exist in most other African countries. In Ghana for example, last I checked, they had one rugby field (Accra sports club) and the only people who play are expatriates and Ghanaians from very exclusive private schools.

The second reason a country does well in football is of course organization. The best example of this is Japan. They were nobodies in football until around 1989 when they started the J -League. They are now the best in Asia and one of the best in the world. By 2001, there was no womens football in Japan. So they started a scheme to teach young talented Japanese girls how to play. And in 2011, they won the womens world cup