JAPANESE EXPATRIATE SETS OUT TO LAUNCH FOOTBALL ACADEMY IN RURAL KENYA

Nyahururu, a rural town in Kenya, is set to get what no other town in the country (besides Nairobi, the capital city) has –a fully fledged football academy (and Nairobi has only one!) –if the efforts of a Japanese expatriate bear fruit. Football or soccer is the national passion of Kenya though much of the passion is directed at foreign teams while the local leagues have been largely neglected. For most able bodied young Kenyan boys playing football is the number one pastime and many have harbored dreams of playing for the national team as well as for European clubs. Some youth teams and senior league teams have incorporated some of these enthusiasts and succeeded in giving their lives some structure and direction. However, a majority of these clubs have only been able to provide these children with a football, a coach and a playing field when their needs are much deeper. A great number of the children need food, clothes and psychological and academic nurturing. A fully fledged soccer academy of the kind that is available in other African and European countries could and should provided this and more in a country where there are a great number of idle and despondent youths to whom an academy would be a life-line.

Football academies in other countries around the world have been successful in keeping children and young adults off vices they are destined to get involved with on the streets and giving them a future they would find almost impossible to achieve otherwise. The elite world football leagues are teeming with products of these academies while other fields can thank these academies for producing high quality professionals, entrepreneurs, doctors and lawyers. We hope the initiative in Nyahururu is a success, that it spreads to other towns and that it does at least nearly as well as some breakthrough initiatives in other countries.

Yoji Sato, the man behind the academy idea, is a Japanese football fan who came to Kenya 11 years ago to write the thesis to his Theological degree and to help run a relief programme set up by his father’s church. He fell in love with the country and after making many return trips there decided to settle in Nyahururu. He currently holds practice sessions with the local children every day of the working week -perhaps small ground work for his big dream; He plans on spending at least 10 million Kenya shillings to put up the academy which will also run literacy programmes.

Page VIII, Football Monday, Daily Nation Newspaper, Kenya, Monday March 31st, 2008