LEARNING EXPERIENCE: All Stars players learn more than just football

SportPesa All Stars John Mark Makwatta (left) and Humphrey Mieno take a break after training at Hull City training grounds on Saturday. PHOTO: COURTESY

Eye-opening might be an overused adjective when it comes to SportPesa All Stars visit to Hull City, but it is the word that best describes their experience here.

Actually their coaches back home should be ready to meet transformed, if not better informed players when they jet back.

For the four or so days they have been in United Kingdom, all their engagements have been nothing short of awe-inspiring, and they are increasingly realising there is more to football than what they have always known.

The fact that most, if not all have largely been engaged by Kenyan Premier League clubs, and that they are home-grown, what they are undergoing here is nothing short of a culture shock.

On Thursday they trained at Bishop Burton College grounds, the home of Hull City FC Academy and experienced first hand how European teams sink huge investments in sports.

The level of organisation and even discipline among the students requires a high degree of obedience — for instance, a player who fails to clean his boots pays a fine, and all of them have specific duties which they perform without grumbling.

Hull City has youth teams from the Under 9 to Under 23s, and each age group has its own coaches, training facilities and dressing room.

On Friday, the afternoon training session was at University of Hull grounds, on an all-weather pitch with artificial grass, in a complex on which more sports facilities are still being constructed, a part of a 15 million pound investment in sports facilities that the university is undertaking.

It has a fully-fledged fitness centre with Physiotherapy areas.

Earlier on Friday, the All Stars players were undertaken through a media training session, and they were taught how to field questions before and/ or after matches and how they need to think on their feet.

They were told they need to remember how to express themselves at all times.

Their media trainers were Dean Windass, a Hull City FC legend and John Helm, a Fifa commentator who has worked in several countries during international tournaments.

“It is an eye opener for me,” Harun Shakava, Gor Mahia defender remarked.

“The things such as media interviews that we take for granted back at home are treated so seriously here.”

After the training session, the players were later taken for another awe inspiring tour of KCOM Stadium, the home of Hull City FC and where the EPL strugglers played Burnley yesterday.

The players were surprised, and delighted at the same time as they walked into the 45,000-capacity stadium and saw their names projected on the advertising boards around the pitch.

Yesterday, the players were back at the University of Hull training grounds, and later in the afternoon, they went to watch the Hull City FC v Burnley match.