Kenya Under 17s depart for Cosafa tournament

The Kenya football national U-17 team departed for Mauritius on Tuesday to take part in the Cosafa U17 Championship set to kick-off on Friday.

The 22-man squad under the tutelage of Kenya’s Technical Director Andreas Spier, who has taken up the coaching role, jetted out 13:15 local time (+3GMT) with six others in the technical bench.

German based Brian Ochieng who features for Bonner SC is the notable inclusion in the squad with Tusker FC’s youth side duo Clement Ngugi and Clinton Machaka also making the rip.

Ahmed Musa Omar of Bandari Youth is the only other player from a top flight club in the contingent with the remaining players drawn from lower leagues and academies in the team selected after two weeks of trials at Nairobi’s Safaricom Stadium.

“We started with 42 boys from the first selection process, 10 of them failed the MRI test, leaving 32 in camp. From the 32 the technical bench picked the best 22 for the tournament.

“Ochieng (Brian) was called from Germany at the very first stage of selection, he has been with the team all through,” FKF Communication and PR Manager, Barry Otieno clarified.

Kenya will be the guest nation in the tournament that whose finals will be played on 31 July, after Mozambique withdrew from the competition. The team is placed in Group B along with Zambia, Malawi and Madagascar.

Group A consists of hosts Mauritius, South Africa, Seychelles and Namibia. Kenya will have to finish in the top two in the pool to make the semifinals.

Before leaving the country, Spier said that the team was going to use the regional championship to prepare for their African Under-17 Championships qualifier against Cameroon, the first leg of which will be played away on the weekend of August 5, one week after the COSAFA Under-17 Championships.

The German, has hit the ground running for what FKF president Nick Mwendwa has emphasized is the foundation for Kenya’s participation in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

He will be assisted by Michael Nam while Sunil Shah will be in charge of goalkeepers training.