NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 23 – The harvest of the fruits of the Talanta Hela Under-19 tournament has already started, with talented Mandera goalkeeper Dhahir Abdikadir being seconded to the Kenyan team preparing for the CECAFA Under-18 Championships.
The Form Two student at St. Anthony’s boys Kitale was one of the standout stars at the play-off tournament that concluded in Nyeri on Wednesday evening, and though his side missed out on an opportunity to play at the National finals by a whisker, already had his star selected.
Sports Cabinet Secretary Ababu Namwamba said he had already spoken with the technical bench of the Kenya U18 team as well as the leadership at the Football Kenya federation to have the youngster in the team.
“I have accelerated one of the players who we are putting through to join up with the team as soon as possible. There might be a challenge in him playing because we have been told that the team has already been registered with the organizers,” Namwamba said.
He added; “But what we are telling the national team technical bench is that even if he doesn’t get registered, he can train with the others and be considered for the next assignments.”
Abdikadir was in brilliant form for the boys from North Eastern, playing a crucial role as they picked up two wins in the group phase, only missing the semis by a point.
Namwamba says he is delighted that there has been a lot of talent spotted at the tournament in Nyeri, and it in essence shows just how important the program is to develop Kenyan sport.
“The whole intention is for talents to be identified from the deepest villages. Kenya has plenty talent and it is amazing to see the excitement and the passion for this tournament. For me this is a good stage to build up the national teams and I am looking forward to the 16 counties going head to head in the nationals,” added the CS.
Namwamba has also said the Ministry’s ambition to ensure no talent goes to waste, pointing out the talent camps organized after the national school ball games, which led to most players being selected to the Rising Starlets team that took part on the qualifiers for the U18 World Cup.
“From the national talent camp, we had over 2,000 talents across nine disciplines and we hosted them for a week long camp. Lots of players for the Rising Starlets were selected from this camp. I am very happy that FKF listened to us in terms of using the database we created to select players,”
“We have flown in four boys; Alvin Kasavuli, Adrine Kibet and Amos Wanjala from Spain, and Luis Ngavi from Orlando Florida who were part of the school games before going abroad and I believe they will do well.”
“You can see there is a clear pathway coming from the grassroots, offering a platform, nurturing and elevating these talents and in the end tuirn them into pesa mfukoni.”
