Why Kenya’s Harambee Stars elimination from World Cup is a silver lining

By John Nandwa

NAIROBI, KENYA: After the recent Harambee’s Star’s defeat at the hands of African champions Nigeria, not much was expected from the remaining World Cup qualifying matches.

But a little less than 24 hours after Kenya’s failure to qualify for the World Cup in Brazil was all but confirmed by the 2-2 draw against Malawi, it is possible to identify a silver-lining of sorts.

In some quarters, there is an acceptance that perhaps we should be grateful that Kenya never came face to face with some of the world’s established football elite.

Perhaps it is possible to accept that Kenya’s time has yet to arrive and that the failure could prove a future turning point for Kenyan football.

All that will be remembered of this failed campaign is the lack of unity in the team and a spat involving the national team coach and some players.

Discerning observers will not shy away from pointing out that not until some Harambee Stars players start to recognise that they are not superstars but public servants doing a job for the nation would the national team be ready to compete at the highest level.

But the changes do not necessarily have to be confined to players’ attitudes. This could be the moment that the country’s football authorities seized to ring long-term changes to the development of proper football structures in the country.

Indeed, it usually takes a crisis for radical new thinking and game-changing initiatives to be adopted and this is an opportunity that should not be missed. Kenya will not be the first case where failure has been turned into the springboard for future success.

Germany’s failure to get out of the group stages of the Euro 2000 brought shame and embarrassment to German football. But that calamity prompted the Bundesliga’s youth revolution that is reaping extravagant rewards for German football being experienced today.

Indeed, take a look at international football’s latest success stories. German football is booming. It is reaping the rewards of a strategy drawn up after the dismal performance of the Euro 2000 when they finished bottom of their group. This failure forced the German football federation into an overhaul of youth football.

A decision was made that the development of technically proficient homegrown players would be in everyone’s interests. This led to the creation of academies right across the top two divisions in German football.

Indeed, the greatest investment that the Germans have made since that calamitous tournament 13 years ago has been the youth.

The current German squad is packed with players such as Manuel Neueur, Jerome Boateng, Mats Hummels, Sami Khedira and Mesut Ozil, all who came through in the successful European under-championships in 2009.

With such success it is easy to be enamoured of the German game and see what we can pick from the Germans and ask what Kenya can learn from it. The answer is self-evident.

Back in 2000, the Germans acted to transform a national failure into a football revolution, but will Kenya continue burying its head in the sand and ignore the opportunity to do the same?