Why current academies can't match defunct National Youth Olympic Centres

Silvester Mandela Amimo (in blue jersey) of Dreams Soccer Academy during Rausha Kipaji football bonanza action in Nakuru. 19 April 2025. [File Courtesy]

When football was football in Kenya, clubs and the national team always reached the finals of different regional and continental championships.

Kenyan clubs in record Premier League champions Gor Mahia, AFC Leopards and Kenya Breweries (now Tusker) alternated in winning the East and Central Africa Club Championships title as Harambee Stars equally dominated in the region and could easily cruise into the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) events.

This was an incredible performance in the seventies and eighties that equally spilt into the nineties.

And it was the work of the former National Youth Olympic Centres (NYOC), which was the brainchild of German tactician Bernard Zygoll, who later became the national coach in 1984.

Coaches who manned the youth centres were experienced and retired international footballers who served the country in different capacities.

The centres were spread across Kenya in the main towns of Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru, Kakamega and Embu.

And their coaches were Zygoll and George Njaya (Nairobi), Mohammed Kheri (Mombasa), Steve Yongo (Kisumu), Sammy Nyongesa (Nakuru), Chris Makokha (Kakamega) and Marshall Mulwa (Embu).

Some of the legendary players who graduated from these centres were goalkeeper Mohamoud Abbas and Abdalla Shebe (Mombasa), James 'Jacaranda' Ouma, Sammy Owino 'Kempes' and Wilberforce Mulamba (Nairobi), Hamisi Shamba, Gideon Hamisi and John 'Bobby' Ogolla (Kisumu), Josephat Murila, Jared Ingutia, James Odawa and Ambrose 'Golden Boy' Ayoyi (Nakuru), George 'Nyangi' Odembo, Mike Wambani and Dan Musuku (Kakamega), among others.

And with their (centres) death at the turn of the century, the standards of football took a nosedive, and the country started lacking a constant supply of talented players from the grassroots to the national level, which affected the performance of clubs and the national teams at the regional and continental championships.

After that, Kenya's performance at the international level, either at the club or national team level, went south, forcing the formation of football academies to replace the Olympic centres.

Today, there are over 100 football academies in the country that still cannot match the output of the less than ten Olympic Youth Centres that were there five decades ago.

What makes these academies unable to render the same services has not been explored.

Former Gor Mahia and Harambee Stars stopper John 'Bobby' Ogolla said only children from rich families can afford to be enrolled in these football academies as opposed to the youth centres, which absorbed all talents from the slums.

"The best talents worldwide come from the slums, and Kenya is not an exception. Academies deprive some of the talents from the slums of an opportunity to showcase their talents because of their financial inability to pay for admission and other services, as opposed to our days when it was all free at the youth centres," Ogolla told Nairobian Sports.

He called on the Kenya Academy of Sports (KAS) to come up with measures that should address affordability that allowing talents from poor families not to go to waste.

"The government should address this as a matter of urgency so that scouting and moulding of talents is achieved at all levels in the country," advised Ogolla, who was recently inducted into the Hall of Fame among Kenya's legendary sportsmen and women.

Ogolla admitted that accessibility in the youth centres was free at their time, a development he said encouraged talents from poor families to troop into them (centres) in bigger numbers.

The Gor Mahia legend warned that unless the government comes up with immediate measures to address this problem, standards could head to the dogs.

And some parents who enrol their kids in these academies do so for fitness purposes.

Head coach of Dreams Soccer Academy, Melkzadeck Alukwe, said managing children in the academies is tough compared to the Olympic centres, owing to a number of factors.

"Some parents don't see the need for talents in their children until we adequately explain to them the benefits. That is when they come to terms with the realities in the society," said Alukwe.

And as private entities, the coach admitted that children must pay for their admission into these academies.

"Some children are delicate to handle right from admission until they mature as professional footballers, as opposed to the former youth centres," said the coach.

This explains the wide difference between the two categories of footballers.

However, some talents from these have gone far to become professional players abroad.

In the past, most players concentrated their careers locally and in the region.

"Trends in playing and football management have changed over time, and it's the reason why today we have several players in the European leagues either at the top, middle or lower leagues," said Alukwe.

When the Football Kenya Federation (FKF) president Hussein Mohammed was campaigning before his election, he promised to work with these academies to increase the number of players going abroad.

"We must find a way out of incorporating our activities with those of football academies when we get into office," Mohammed told football stakeholders in a Nakuru hotel late last year.

"When we have many of our players taking part in competitive leagues abroad, it is a way to promote our standards at home," added Bobby Ogolla.