When Harambee Stars coach Engin Firat took the mic just after David Ochieng – who had accompanied him to Sunday’s presser- left, he took a moment to ‘let his feelings’ known to everyone before opening the floor for questions from the media members present.As calm as he looked, Firat was ready to reveal some hard truths on the state of Kenyan football, taking his time to accentuate his points by help of analytical data displayed on one of the white boards at the press conference.The big message he wanted to point out looked to have been something he had been yearning to talk about for days, and Sunday happened to be his perfect day.##NAJAVA_MECA_7108508##“I want to come to a point that I feel we all need to understand as Kenyans,” Firat said after running down a video presentation of how he monitored his players remotely. “Everybody talks about winning and about results but hey! Let us all look at reality.”At this point, the mood in the room had shifted from just an ‘ordinary presser’ to somewhat of a reflective moment for the country’s state of football and sports in general.“The reality starts from basic things like infrastructure,” Firat said before posing a question to the press. “How can it be that I, as a foreigner, haven’t seen my team play outside Nairobi? How many times has Harambee Stars played in other counties apart from Nairobi?“How can we understand our problems if we don’t check some things out?” Firat asked a clearly stunned media room.“We need to come to a realization that we are far from reality, very far from it,” the Turkish manager stated, settling into what was a memorable presser. “Forget about Europe, we are not even close to their standards. Let us come back and ask ourselves about which stadium currently can host a proper competitive football game. All we talk about is winning and results.”He wasn’t finished yet!“You know I remember the last time I was here, everyone kept on asking me about results, results and more results,” Firat said, this time, instructing a new graphic to be put up on the projected board in front of the room.“Yeah, let’s take a look here,” Firat said, pointing to the screen that had a summary of Kenya’s success or lack of it in football.Its contents: Zero Olympics or World Cup appearances for both men and women, two Africa Cup of Nations appearances in the last 31 years and no Kenyan club in the CAF Champions League since the 80s and 90s. “I want you to check it yourselves,” the 52 year old said.It was simply engaging, and Firat went an extra step of asking one journalist his age, just to show how far from the top Kenya was.“It’s the reality. Two AFCON appearances in thirty one years without making it out of the group stages,” Firat said in his ‘expose’.Harambee Stars head coach lays four clear objectives ahead of Iran friendly“I honestly don’t understand. If this is our past, then why is everyone talking about World Cups, AFCONs or whatever,” Firat continued, now turning the interviewer in the process.“Kindly help me answer this question. I am asking all of you. Kindly give me one logical explanation of why you think we are better than other countries. Please tell me I am here. Please, I am not joking.“I am not just saying this for the sake of it but I want us to look at the reality.”The next few minutes were sobering, as Firat gave a detailed explanation of how ‘the other day’, Firat and the Harambee Stars team failed to secure a training ground at the Kasarani Annex grounds because ‘a rugby team’ was doing its practice at the same venue.“We are talking about the national team here,” Firat said. “It had to take the intervention of the Sports Ministry for us to train. You guys, I am not making excuses but tell me why no one is talking about reality.”By now you know the drill, “I am not finished,” he said – raising the expectations for yet another ‘hard hitting reality.’Karan Patel wins ARC Equator Rally in Voi“What I want to do is make sure that I am honest with all of you. I am not going to sell any dreams. We should just focus on going to the next step,” Firat said.The next step as per him was what he was just starting out – securing as many high profile matches that gives the team an opportunity to ‘grow and learn.’“I know why if Kenya is not playing a big cup, they go for the easy friendlies,” Firat said. “That is because everyone wants to win so that you can be happy!“You see one thing with Kenya, everybody blames everybody. It’s just the names that are changing but problems remain the same.”As part of the change, Firat was specific to the main target of his first part of his speech by concluding, “Give us time to prepare and judge us when it is important. We have to build and think long term.”
