Labda athletics, i'm not too sure about the other sports. Anyway i believe we have young talented players in the country, if you doubt this make a point of attending the National Sec school finals.....so many good young players! Our biggest problem is that unlike countries such as Nigeria, Gabon and Ghana we have a poor youth set up. I think we should forget about Harambee Stars and start concentrating on the Under-16's & 18's, that's the only way we'll be able to develop a successful team that can challenge for top honors in Africa or even WC later on....that is what Senegal did with its 2002 WC squad and Gabon who have now become a real powerhouse in Africa.

There's a time when majority of Kenyan players were products of MYSA, Bob Munroe and his team were at the forefront of youth development....i'll always be a huge MYSA fan for that because nowadays its rare to find such programmes. They had football teams from all over Nairobi. I think the closest we have is Ligi ndogo which is not really accessible to all.

We can take a vote on this thread to see whether majority think that Oliech lived up to his potential or not.

But clearly you may not be aware that Mike Okoth won the league title twice at Genk. He also won the Belgium Cup and played in UEFA Cup http://archive.today/3ylT .

He took a longer route and arrived at the top league as a journey man middle aged footballer and still managed 12 goals in his best season in Belgium.

He represented Kenya thrice at the Africa Cup of Nations despite Kenya having been banned when he was at the prime of his career in 96.

He opened the doors that have seen hordes of Kenyan footballers signed up by Belgian clubs as both Mariga and Wanyama can testify.

Oliech only has champions league experience to show for all his years in France.

Oliech was much more talented and could have done more to convince European clubs about Kenya's footballing pedigree.

Click on this link to see which players he was being compared to back in 2004 http://www.futaa.com/foo...better-rated-back-then.

Note: As a rule of thump, I do tend to judge talented people more harshly than those who are less talented but apply themselves more.

And for those who think that Kenyans should stop expecting one of their own to succeed in soccer, Mo Farah was once one of the worst long distance runners that I had ever seen. We may never produce a winning football team but we should one day produce a George Weah.

I do not want to bash Mike Okoth who is a good player so shall focus on Oliech



The Belgian league is way below the French league. Genk would at best be a mid table team in France



Oliech single handedly qualified Kenya for the 2004 ANC by scoring in every game. No other Kenyan has achieved that. He would have qualified for more but he played in an era when Kenya football was plagued by very poor administration with Maina Kariuki, Hatimy and Nyamweya



Based on that logic you can also say Oliech opened the doors for Mariga and Wanyama.

Secondly, Oliech has taken it upon himself to get young Kenyan players trials.

Thirdly Oliech actually sponsors a youth team in Dagoretti.



That is a huge achievement. Most of the top African teams have strikers who have never played in the Champions league.
Countries like Zambia & South Africa have football pedigree yet their top strikers like Chris Katongo are stuck in African leagues. Its very difficult for an African striker to thrive in France much less a Kenyan.



Oliech was more talented and accomplished much more than any striker from East Africa has accomplished in Europe. At one point he was playing so well that Auxerre fans were waving the Kenyan flag in the stands.

In any case there is nothing Oliech can do to prove Kenya's football pedigree. There is no football pedigree in Kenya. Until we start taking player development seriously and stop fighting and hating the clubs there will be no pedigree.



With regard to that list, Oliech accomplished more than most of the people in that list.



What makes you think Oliech did not apply himself more ? Do you think you a Kenyan last in French league for a decade without applying himself ? European coaches would have very little patience for a Kenyan player who does not work hard

I think one way to strengthen the league is to have tribal teams camouflaged as regional/community teams for every tribe/region.Compare the status of premier league now and when we had AFC(abaluhya football club) Gusii Shabana fotball club,Luo union(reunion FC),Gor mahia,Nakuru all stars etc.

Then each region/tribe will atleast maybe develop interest in the game which will lead to increase in stadium numbers and cash in the respective clubs accounts

I watched Mike Okoth and I have not said a single bad thing about him. You are the one obsessed with besmirching Dennis Oliech


Oliech scored the winning goal at the most critical moment when Kenya needed to beat Cape Verde in the last game. After the match he was carried shoulder high by fans.

At the 2004 ANC, Oliech was the best Kenya player. In the last game he scored one goal and set up the other two.



We are comparing the French league to Belgian League. We are not comparing Auxerre to Genk. Therefore your argument is bogus. The French league is rated way above the Belgian league. This is common knowledge. There are no Belgian teams in the top 40 of UEFA rankings. And according to the rankings below, the French league is 9th in the world whereas the Belgian league is 15th

https://twitter.com/spor...638820508434433/photo/1

Also Belgian teams do very poorly in the champions league when compared to French teams. How many world class players play in Belgium ? Most likely none. Its a much lower calibre league. No wonder every top Belgian player leaves immediately and never returns until they are close to retirement



Obviously you dont understand football. Raw talent alone gets you nowhere. Players like Messi who are groomed in proper youth development schemes since they were 12 years old will always be better than players who grew up playing with ball ya jwala in a dusty street. At the Barcelona youth scheme, young players age 12 learn from the best coaches. They learn fundamentals such as shooting with both feet, positioning, tactical awareness etc.

Oliech and other Kenyan players are like brilliant mathematicians who never went to primary school to learn basic fundamentals addition and subtraction. So anyone who thinks Oliech would have been as good as Messi does not know anything about football.








I am sorry but I have to laugh at this. It shows how clueless you are. Ronaldo has been groomed by qualified youth coaches since he was 9 years old. He was already in the Sporting Lisbon youth scheme when he was 12. he has been learning proper fundamentals since he was 9 or 10. So the idea that he arrived at man U as a raw talent is just incredibly laughable. At man U he simply polished the skills he had been learning since he was 9

Wayne Rooney joined the Everton youth scheme when he was 9 !!!!!

These players have trained by qualified youth coaches since they were pre-teens and you are trying to tell us that they were raw when they joined Man U. This must be a joke.



You are talking as if you have actual proof that Rooney worked hard and Oliech did not. Where is your evidence ?





Once again you are clueless

1. How well a player does in youth tournaments is not always a good indicator of how well they will be as seniors. Some players do well in youth tournaments simply because they matured early. Look at Freddy Adu. Everyone thought he was the next Pele when he was 14. Now he is a nobody.

2. Mikel Obi has been stifled since he joined Chelsea because they insist on playing him in a defensive role. This has stifled his attacking instincts. Its the same thing happening to Wanyama now.




Are you joking ? Football management in the 1980s and 1990s was much better than now. Job Omino, Peter Kenneth and co may have denied transfer certificates but football was efficiently run. There were no wrangles. Money was not routinely disappearing as it does now. Kenyan teams were generally doing much better. As recently as 1994, Tusker almost won the Africa cup winners cup.



Eti good people can never be kept down ? Citing some examples of people who succeeded against odds does not mean good people always succeed. For every Chris Froome who succeeded, there are literally hundreds who were just as good but never made it.

Froome has succeeded because he had money to fund his own training. His British roots also helped him. As a British citizen he has access to sponsorship, and excellent equipment. Britain is the leader in engineering racing bikes.

There are dozens of Kenyans in Rift Valley who have enough endurance to beat Froome. But they are kept down by lack of government support, nonexistent facilities etc. So your "good people are never kept down" argument is rather bogus.

Daniel Adongo is a freak of nature. But his lack youth development is precisely what caused him to fail in New Zealand and South Africa. His former coach Tana Umaga said as much. In American football, his role is limited to being the equivalent of a wrestler. He likely will never be asked to touch the ball. Had Adongo and others had proper youth development, he would have been one of the best rugby players in the world.

Oliech broke?
http://www.the-star.co.k...-to-the-gutters_c1314949

These stories of Oliech being broke keep appearing. The people writing these stories do not even offer any evidence that Oliech is broke. Is he now living in Kayole?

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