Desai FC secure trip to Germany

Desai FC players celebrate with their trophy after winning The Red Bull Four 2 Score tournament in Nairobi. [Jonah Onyango, Standard]

Desai FC will represent Kenya at the 2023 World Red Bull Four 2 Score finals in Germany after beating Harike FC 4-1 in the national finals at Nairobi International School.

Peter Bol was the hero, scoring a brace with Hassan Mo and Mahad Anas netting a goal each to help Desai secure a once in a lifetime trip for the Nairobi team to Germany.

The newly crowned Kenyan champions will be among the 27 national champions that will be hosted by Bundesliga side RB Leipzig during the global finals in August 2023.

Desai captain Hussein Hassan could not hide his joy after securing the sole ticket to the World Finals.

"The road to finals was very tough but our good preparation and commitment as a team made us become the victors. We can't wait to take our flight to Germany," said Hassan.

The 27 participating countries from four continents are Kenya, Bahrain, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, Croatia, Egypt, Finland, Germany, India, Jordan and Kuwait.

Others are Maldives, Mauritius, Netherlands, Nigeria, Panama, Romania, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Spain, UAE, USA and UK.

The new and innovative 4 vs 4 tournament that challenges players to show their best small-field skills in 10-minute rounds attracted 16 teams across the country.

On their way to the final, Desai saw off Bayern Mombasa 1-0 in the semi-finals as coastal side Harike registered an identical win against Serani.

Bayern finished third after thrashing Serani 5-2 in the third place play-offs.

In the quarter-finals, Desai silenced Soccer Masters 1-0, Taliban fell 1-0 to Serani, Bayern trounced Mazkbads 4-0 while Harike beat Madaraka All Stars 1-0.

The tournament comes with an exciting set of rules which add to the suspense of the game with goals scored during the first and last minute counting for double.