Former Gor Mahia players Edwin Lavatsa and Ali Hassan, Mathare’s Paul Ochieng, and KCB’s Warambo Bethwell are the latest former FKF Premier League players to advance their budding coaching careers after they enrolled for the ongoing CAF C Coaching Course that started on Monday, 4th October, 2024.
Another 30 coaches among them the ex-FKF Premier League players, are currently taking their CAF C coaching course in Buruburu, Nairobi County. This umber adds to the thousands of coaches who have benefitted from the Football Kenya Federation capacity building initiatives rolled out over the last eight (8) years by the FKF leadership under the guidance of FKF President Nick Mwendwa and former General Secretary Barry Otieno in a bid to create a wholistic football ecosystem in the country.
Edwin Lavatsa, who is currently an assistant coach for Kibera Blackstars FC was enthusiastic that the opportunity to continue honing his coaching skills through attaining proper certification will open up his future opportunities as he transitions from playing to coaching.
“I am happy that FKF has provided us with a platform to get the knowledge that we need to help progress football and as my exit plan to transition from playing to coaching puns out, I am optimistic that this course and others to come will also help me fulfill my objective in coaching,” Lavatsta said.
The month-long course is led by CAF instructors George Mwangi and Musa Otieno. This is one of the courses which have been conducted since 2016 when the current federation came into office. Under the guidance of Mwendwa and Barry Otieno, who has been the federations CEO in the last five years before resigning to vie for the FKF Presidency, close to 8,000 coaches from the grassroots level have been equipped with CAF-D to CAF-A coaching courses
Today, almost every football team from the grassroots to top tier is coached by a qualified coach, well trained for his level of coaching. Most of this training has been free or at a subsidized cost especially for former footballers while all this while, the complaining ‘legends’ have been sitting pretty, waiting to make noise when elections are called.
The FKF believes that former footballers have a lot to offer for the game underscoring the reason he has been steadfast calling for former footballers to remain relevant in the game by venturing into coaching, refereeing and other specialties around the game by taking up training hence impacting on the growth of the game.
The success stories of past footballers are endless. From former Harambee stars captain Musa Otieno who holds a CAF-B licence and leading the current CAF C course at Buruburu to Mildred Cheche, a CAF B license holder, who just days ago led the Under 17 Junior Starlets team to Kenya’s first-ever FIFA World Cup in the Dominican republic as well as Jackline Juma, a CAF A license coach who excelled in her training, is now the head coach of the U15 Women’s National Team and the first woman to coach in the FKF Premier League at FC Talanta.
The federation believes in imparting knowledge to coaches who in turn help in developing talent from the lowest cadre in primary schools a tactic that has been seen to bear fruits with the recent Under 17 girls team making it to the world cup and the men under 20 team already having qualified for the upcoming Under 20 AFCON competition.
