They shine in clubs; are dim at Harambee Stars

AFC Leopards' striker Jacob Keli. [BONIFACE OKENDO,STANDARD]

Despite his tip-top form at club level, Zesco striker Jesse Were just cannot replicate the same at the national team Harambee Stars.

The decision by Sebastian Migne to drop him ahead of today’s Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Ghana has elicited mixed reactions with many fans insisting he should have been given another chance.

But Were has played 23 matches for Stars during which he has not managed to score.

However, at club level, it is a different story as he has netted 80 goals at three clubs -Tusker, Mathare United and his current club Zesco United.

Were’s situation is not entirely unique to him and a number of top players locally and abroad have faced a similar predicament.

Take Boniface Ambani for instance. His 26 goals for Tusker in the 2006 Kenyan Premier League (KPL) season remains the highest to date and no other player has ever scored more than him.

But Ambani did not replicate the same form at the national team where he turned up just seven times and scored just three goals between 2006 and 2009.

Ambani was such a top striker that he won four golden boot awards at different clubs beginning in 2002 when he scored 16 goals while still at Oserian. In 2005, while playing for Kenya Pipeline, he emerged the top striker with 18 goals.

A year later, he achieved the same feat with Tusker before moving to Tanzanian giants Yanga where he also emerged top scorer in the league with 24 goals to his name.

Ambani says he was not given a chance to shine at the national team level.

“In most of the matches that I played, I always came in as a second half substitute. Most times I was never called up and there was no way for me to replicate the same form at the national team,” he says.

Ambani admits that playing at the national team is a different ball game and the ability to perform depends on many factors.

Then there is also Jacob Keli. In 2013, the former Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) forward emerged the golden boot winner with 18 goals, a feat that earned him several call-ups to the national team Harambee Stars.

In all occasions, he failed to rise to the occasion and was a major disappointment to the selectors.

Despite emerging the top scorer in the 2016 season, former Ulinzi Stars striker John Makwatta with his 16 goals never made an impact during the few occasions he was called up to the national team lending credence to the notion that performance at club level does not automatically translate to good performance in the national team.

Martin Imbalambala, Paul Kiongera and Ibrahim Kitawi are among them.