KENYA: FOOTBALL/SOCCER: MATHARE UNITED MAKES HISTORY BY WINNING THE MOI GOLDEN CUP

Record ID: 912390

  • Title: KENYA: FOOTBALL/SOCCER: MATHARE UNITED MAKES HISTORY BY WINNING THE MOI GOLDEN CUP
  • Date: 21st October 1998
  • Summary: MATHARE, NAIROBI, KENYA (RECENT) (REUTERS) MATAHRE CELEBRATE NJOROGE SAYING: "WE'VE PROVED THAT COMING FROM THE SLUMS, IT'S A BIG DEAL, YES, YOU'RE POOR, BUT IT DOESN'T MEAN YOU CAN'T DO ANYTHING. IF YOU SET YOUR GOALS AND COMMIT YOURSELF TO ACHIEVING THEM THEN YOU WILL ACHIEVE THEM" (ENGLISH) MATAHARE TEAM WALKING THROUGH CROWD ONTO PITCH MATAHARE SUPPORTERS DANCING CROWD
  • Embargoed: 6th July 2005 18:45
  • Keywords:
  • Location: REUTERS TELEVISION (RTV)
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: Sport
  • Reuters ID: LVA8C69V5CXCYRK24LT40DQPSRXU
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
  • Story Text: From slum kids to golden boys of Kenyan soccer,
    Mathare United made history as the first football team outside
    Kenya's premier league to win the Moi Golden Cup, Kenya's top
    knockout tournament trophy.

    They are surely the first team in the world to be made
    up entirely of kids from the slums.

    Mathare, on the outskirts of the Kenyan capital Nairobi,
    is one of Africa's largest shantytowns.

    But it is also home to this all-conquering football team
    and to a project which is bringing the community a new sense
    of self-respect.

    Ten years ago, the Mathare Youth Sports Association, or
    MYSA, started as a self-help scheme organising sports for kids
    and slum clean-ups.

    A year later, 120 MYSA soccer teams were competing in
    Kenya's first under-12 league.

    In 1998, MYSA runs an incredible 630 teams from under 12s
    to under 18s.250 of them are girls' teams.

    For children whose daily lot is a struggle to survive,
    MYSA can be a lifeline.

    Maurice Njoroge, MYSA Chief Manager, says it provides some
    kind of shelter for the young people.While they are playing
    football, irrespective of the problems and troubles they might
    have, for those 20, 30, 40 or 50 minutes, they are enjoying
    life.

    The children of Mathare have already won several major
    international youth tournaments.Now there is a senior team.

    After just a few years in the Kenyan league, Mathare
    United is already in the second division, and scaring the
    country's soccer giants.

    The MYSA keeps its potential soccer stars with their feet
    on the ground.Each senior player does 20 hours community
    service a week, coaches a junior side, and referees four games
    a month.

    Their coach says they are transforming Kenyan soccer.

    "Every player that I coach in the senior side has to go
    and coach a junior team, everybody has a club, everybody is a
    referee and you find every team they are coaching, all of them
    go and coach another smaller team, each of them referees, so
    the word spreads around, the word from me and down the stairs
    is just football, football football."
    Vice-captain Maurice Wambua is one of the slum kids turned
    soccer-stars to have played for the Harambee Stars, Kenya's
    national side.He is also head of the community's Aids
    prevention project, and the team captain teaches
    photo-journalism to the kids of Mathare.

    "We get good photographs.There are a lot of things in the
    slums the kids would like to photograph and get people to see
    it.It's not a lot of people who have the chance to go down
    there and see all the things, but the kids have access to get
    into every place they want to because they are part of the
    community.I will assure you, some of the pictures they are
    taking, not even a local professional photographer would get a
    chance to see."
    Kimanzi's enthusiasm is contagious.

    "When I collect them and take them for training, they
    appreciate it so much, that's how I pass my hours for the
    community, with kids and it is very nice"
    Mathare is a desperate, forbidding place: off limits to
    many richer Kenyans, and all too often on the receiving end of
    negative publicity.Now the residents of Mathare have reason
    to be proud.

    Kimanzi says "At least something about the area is up at
    the moment.I don't think anyone feels uneasy.You ask someone
    if they come from Mathare at the moment, and he won't deny it,
    because he knows there is something positive around."
    The senior side, Mathare United, was born after an
    inspirational trip to Brazil in 1992, when the team - all
    teenagers at the time - won a specially-arranged tournament
    and met one of football's true greats, Pele.

    Offers from Premier league sides flooded in, but the
    players wanted to stick together.Mathare United was born and
    they beat three premier league sides to reach the final.

    Nevertheless they were underdogs against the holders from
    Eldoret but the young players, with an average age of 20,
    refused to be overawed by their opponents.

    After five minutes of play Mathare scored with a powerful
    shot from winger Asman Ngawya.Ali Mohammed made it 2-0
    shortly afterwards, but Eldoret pulled one back just before
    half-time.

    The second half was a nerve-wracking affair for Mathare's
    supporters as Eldoret used all of their skill against the
    young players.But Mathare United held its nerve and emerged
    the victor.

    Team member Njoroge says "We've proved that coming from
    the slums, it's a big deal, yes, you're poor, but it doesn't
    mean you can't do anything.If you set your goals and commit
    yourself to achieving them, then you will achieve them."
    Mathare United now represent Kenya against the continent's
    soccer giants in Africa's cup winners cup.
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