Muhiddin has it right on foreign players
Of late there has been a lot of clamour regarding the place of foreign players in Kenya. Many including former Harambee stars coach Francis Kimanzi, Ulinzi coach Robert Matano and FKF chair Sam Nyamweya have suggested that the number of foreign players should be reduced supposedly to raise the standards of the national team.
Today former Stars coach Twahir Muhiddin who coaches Bandari has refuted those comments. According to Muhiddin, foreign players add quality to the league.
“No club signs a foreign player for the sake of it. The clubs have an interest in excelling and winning the league title and they will sign players they feel will help them achieve their goals. And they have sponsors whose interest must be catered for. That means performing,” Muhiddin, who currently coaches Bandari, said.
“I can mention a dozen of the foreign players who are doing well in our league and are helping their respective clubs. Gor Mahia is an example. Almost half their team is made up of foreign players who are doing very well at the moment,” he said to the KPL site.
Where Muhiddin is spot on is when he says that the remedy for poor Harambee stars performance is not to reduce the number of foreigners but to invest in youth structures.
“We have to go back to having youth structures so that we can build our own home grown talent that can compete and surpass any foreign talent that comes to the country. We have to create our own talent and that does not come by preventing foreign players from playing in our leagues” he continued.
Germany are the current world champions. According to statistics , foreign players represent 45% of the Bundesliga. In the Bayern Munich squad for example foreign players represent 14 out of 28( 50%). This has not stopped Germany from being perennial world powers.
Germany succeeds not by blocking foreigners but by forcing all Bundesliga 1 and 2 teams to have age group youth structures.
In the 1980s, the Italian Serie A had all the best foreigners. It did not stop Italy from winning the world cup in 1982 and almost winning in 1990 and 1994. In fact it is said that the reason Italy had the best defenders because they had to play against the best strikers every weekend. This sharpened them. During this era all the best strikers played in Italy including Maradona, Platini, Rummenigge, Paolo Rossi, Gullit, Van Basten et al.
But Italian strikers also benefited by learning from these top tier strikers and watching them train. In the same manner that Olunga can learn from a veteran like Kagere. The impact of foreign arrivals has caused Musa Mohamed to raise his standards as he was in danger of losing his place in the starting XI.
In Kenya, each team is allowed a maximum of 5 foreigners under the latest rule. Which means that at most, foreign players will be 20% of the league. Yet some coaches are complaining. Kimanzi himself has 5 foreigners in his squad. Perhaps he is unhappy because his foreigners are ineffective and he is looking for a way to level the playing field. Matano is in even worse shape because Ulinzi would have a difficult time enlisting foreign players.
Even KPL chair Jack Oguda thinks the number of foreigners should be reduced. Perhaps he thinks television audiences and fans would rather watch lower calibre local. He need only remember the high quality goal that Meddie Kagere scored against Nakuru All stars that wowed TV audiences.
This is the point that coach Frank Nuttall made:
“We must not settle for mediocrity. The foreign players have brought some value to KPL. Maybe what needs to be done is to come up with rules that will ensure only the best are allowed in. At the same time, focus should be made to revive youth structures so that we have players who can replace the foreigners when they go,” he said to the Standard.
Nuttall has also called for a re-look at who is really a foreign player considering that the East African charter allows for free movement of players in the region.
Rather than restrict foreigners, Oguda should encourage the creation of permanent youth structures among KPL teams.
Weighing in on the same issue, Sofapaka chairman Elly Kalekwa argued that players from the region should not be considered as foreigners as they are not required to pay for work permits. “They are not foreigners in the eyes of the Government since they do not pay for work permits, and so we should not consider them as such in the KPL. Let us allow as many as possible to come and play here without restrictions,” said Kalekwa.
A lot of hulabaloo trying to make a non issue an issue.
Locals / “foreigners” for that matter engage and compete on a level playing field and its the coaches who determine who plays after evaluating performance in training.
Now Nyamweya & ilk want to determine “special” foreigner players in the boardroom, using what “specialometer”/criteria may I ask
A Gor Mahia player is a Gor Mahia player nationality, tribe are irrelevant.
This is a “non-issue” if i may recall how the PORK (President Of Republic Kenya) responded to the “BURNING” issue as regards the recognition of human rights pertaining to individual sexual orientation during a press conference with the POTUS (President Of The United States).
We are aiming to conquer AFRICA and should maintain the status quo at least to march the modern world of football strategies than include shopping for the best talent available albeit limited to only fielding five at a time.Kimanzi made the comment based on Gor MAHIA and so is MATANO after Joe Birgen had lamented about ULINZI policy the excludes foreign players recruitment.
So let the POFKF (President of Football Kenya Federation) give us a break and wait for the elections. Decision on Foreign players will be dictated and decided by all the members of KPL and not the POFKF, OGUDA’S, Matano’s or Kimanzi the Gor hater.
I like acronym PORK.
OoOOoH ! how we get things wrong sometimes ……Now we compare Germany football and Kenyan football. What is the average budget of Tier 1 germany football club ??? Billions of shillings. Offcourse with that money they can set up all the youth structures . You tell Gor mahia or Efusi leopards to set up youth structures …where will the money come from ?
secondly, how is China growing its football base ? eh , importng expensive foreigners from all over the world to improve their football standards. watch this space, china will be world cup champions in 2030.
This issue of national or foreign is irrelevant in Africa. Infact sometimes i ask myself why cant Africa just send 4 unified teams to the world cup – one unified team from East Africa, one unified team from South Africa, one unified team from North Africa and one unified team from West Africa.
For as long as we keep talking anw waiting for money from KFF/FKF or even corporate sponsors , we can forget about developing football in this continent and we shall always play second fiddle to the rest of the world. we have to open up to the rest of the world just like everybody else.
mara oohh Gor is being favoured, mara oooh gor fans, mara oohh.
they have picked another line oohh foreign player.
next will be find Gor another league.
All these are nyef nyefs.
we are playing on and winning everything.
on a serious note, if local cannot match, walusimbi’s, ^&*^^&mana’s, HOW WILL THE NATIONAL TEAM PERFORM? CAN ALL THE OTHER TEAMS FIELD LOCALS AND GOR DO WHAT THEY WANT WITH THEIR INTERNATIONALS.
DO NOT DEPEND ON GOR TO PROVIDE PLAYERS.
THERE ARE TWO REASONS TO THIS CLAIM
GOR DOMINANCE
GOR NOT ATTRACTING LOCAL SO THERE ARE FEW QUALITY LOCAL PLAYERS. PERIOD
WE ARE NOT SORRY IN BOTH INSTANCES
ARE WE PLAYING ON SUNDAY OR ITS NEXT WEEK????FUTAA IS GIVING CONTRADICTING DAYS.
When a bright person talks you got what he is talking about “THANKS COACH TWAHIR MUHIDDIN”, for giving Insight to people like Kamanzi and his associates. Kamanzi just came out with the idea of Foreigns Players to discourage Gor Mahia players in TZ. I think has achieved what he wanted but then why Mathare United beatten him while MU does not have Foreign Players like Gor Mahia?
The only change that should be made in regards to foreign players is that they should have featured for their respective national team within the last two years.
kpl should allow atleast seven foreigners in each club.but they should have caps ii their respective countries.
@ogango trailer ati…… PORK??? you have made my day.@ ingo atleast for once u hav spoken on issue instead of vitriol am used to get from u yes thats the way to go bro.thanx to other bloggers who hav been positively objective in their contribution here.
its very sad in Kenya, you see people who walk like dogs with curved tails claim to lead or rule masses or coach Kpl clubs, this are people with old football tactics n too old n tired to embrace new football knowledge, for those people who careful watched ,observed ,analyzed cecafa you will agree with me that its only tactics that won matches n all teams were fit, if were it not for our brothers from EAC who have brought high workrate n professionalism to gor, otherwise now we could be talking of those old stories that mara gor players are not fit , cannot pass accurate balls, have no objective or vision but thanks to Frank nutall he has worked tirelessly to bring the internationally accepted standards to gor players and now that thing that gor players fail to click beyond gor will be a thing of past n I want to assure gor fans that any current gor player who will go to other clubs will never fail. truth be told Kenyan harambee star team cannot go anywhere or win any matches unless they change players attitude and Harambee star TB change the style of recruiting players to national team Nyamweya should know the question of balancing all tribes to play in national team does not hold, they should look at player overall performance and whether he has team spirit, so nyamweya should not feel envy to gor, Olunga cannot shine in harambee star because current formations of bobby Williamson does not allow inclusion of speedy wingers and midfielders and intelligent defender like musa mohammed who can pass balls to olunga for him to to score and shine.
I just want to advice nyamweya instead of feeling jealous towards gormahia this how your harambee star will get to score goals and shine, include speedy wingers innocent wafula and paul were, in midfield bring back speedy oliech, and defence make sure musa mohammed is there n striker be Michael olunga this will be engine of harambee star n u will win matches. Kimanzi n matano cannot match Ghost mulee performance while he was a coach so I will just ignore them in any case they have never produced a prolific player.