A hobby is what one loves or likes to do most of his/hers free time. Children on the other hand develop certain interest in so many things, football being one of them.
In Kibera young stars with big aspirations in life yearn to be the best footballers like the like of African Footballer of the year Samuel E’too, Brazilian footballer Ronaldhino and Didier Drogba from the Ivory Coast, not to mention but a few who are known to be the best in football.
Boys who are young and energetic and live here in Kibera would also like to follow their footsteps. They have a lot of interest in football in that some have formed groups in which they meet and play in the evening after school.
In most cases one will find them at DC’s sports grounds and Kamkunji grounds playing everyday. Ochieng a resident who lives in Kibera says, “I like to watch them play as it is one way of keeping them busy and off drugs, also by doing so they are nurturing their God given talent”.
In Kibera it has improved in that footballers are awarded after tournaments which are held every after every few months. These has seen the likes of Celtic a European based football club in the Scottish league set up a football team here in Kibera. The team known as ‘Kibera Celtic FC’ which plays in the Super 8 football league is one example to show that football in Kibera is far much improving than the past has been.
On the other hand ladies are not left behind in that we have ladies football clubs here in Kibera. The Girls Soccer and Carolina for Kibera being some of the teams which have ladies active teams. With the Ksh. 50 million grant from FIFA to the Kenyan Football Federation the youth of Kibera do not want to be left behind and are up to show the Country what they can do by producing talent in great heights.
Apart from all these there are some challenges the young and talented face. Poor playing grounds and training facilities are not available to the players. These causes the players to get hurt during training and games. Most of them do not get steepens during games for motivation which causes many of them to hang up their boots and start looking alternative ways to get money for their daily needs.
Corruption within the bigger heads is the key thing to unimprovement of football in the past. Kibera and Kenya at large are waiting to see what is in place for the youth given that there is a new football governing body in Kenya after the previous election made earlier these month.
We are yet to see if Kenyans can be able to fulfill the aspirations of the ambitious young footballers.