Kenya urged to set up football academies to nurture talent

Nairobi, June 15: Victor Wanyama, a Kenyan footballer who plays in the English Premier League (EPL), has called for setting up football academies to tap football talent in the East African nation.

Wanyama, who plays for London-based Tottenham Hotspur, said here on on Thursday that football schools initiate children at a young age thereby making them to develop interest in the game at a time when they are still able to follow instructions.

“The football scene in Kenya needs academies if the national team ever hopes to compete against the best in the world, it needs to have a feeder pool where players graduate to the national level,” Wanyama said while conducting a training football training session for children aged between 9-14 years. He said initiating kids to football at an early age will help the development of the sport and Kenyan players.

The defensive midfielder, whose team finished in third place during the last season behind Manchester City and Manchester United, has scored a total of five goals for Tottenham since he joined the team in 2017.

“I am settled and happy at Spurs and leaving the team has not yet occurred in my mind at the moment,” the national team skipper told reporters. IANS