In previous years, most of the Harambee Stars coaches have taken over their jobs with a lot at stake.Either it has been during a World Cup qualifier or an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier and the pressure that comes with it has almost broken the careers of the coaches even before it has begun.Consider the following. In 2016, Stanley Okumbi was appointed Harambee Stars coach taking over from Bobby Williamson. Okumbi’s first match was against Guinea Bissau away in an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier which Stars lost. Okumbi lost the return match again days later in Nairobi and did not last more than one year into the job.In 2018, Sebastian Migne replaced Okumbi and his first match was against Sierra Leone away in an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier. Kenya lost the match but still went ahead to qualify for the 2019 Cup of Nations finals in Egypt.Francis Kimanzi took over the mantle in 2019 and was almost immediately replaced by Jacob “Ghost” Mulee as the team was trying to qualify for the 2022 Africa of Nations finals which ended in failure.##NAJAVA_MECA_7069178##This however may not the case with Engin Firat who is making his second coming with Harambee Stars this time on a three-year contract.He is taking over at a time the team is not facing any immediate international engagements until probably early next year giving him all the time to build a formidable side. Engin Firat set to debut new foreign recruits for Harambee StarsKenya has been locked out of the on-going Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers after they were suspended by world governing body FIFA last year due to government interference.The country had been included in Group ‘C’ of the qualifiers alongside Cameroon, Burundi and Mauritius. Kenya’s ban was only lifted late last year after the qualifiers had kicked off and cannot join the bandwargon now.With that out of the way, Firat has all the time to build a good team that can compete for future tournaments.He starts that with two back to back friendly matches against Burundi later this month. Harambee Stars coach Engin Firat to work with two local assistants, no foreign assistantWith no pressure to qualify for anything immediately, Firat can take all his time to try out as many players as possible before settling on a winning combination.In terms of players he has a lot of options locally and abroad and the future can only be bright. This time Football Kenya Federation (FKF) may have made the right decision in as so far as the team is concerned.
