Former Sofapaka player eyes coaching in the top league

Former Sofapaka striker Ronald ‘Balo’ Okoth has admitted his dreams of making it into coaching at the top tier Football Kenya Federation Premier League (FKFPL) just a day after the player enrolled to take part in a ten-day CAF D coaching course rolled out by the country’s footballing organizing body.

Balo, who announced his retirement from active footballing action in August 2020 after a 13-year long spell on the turf, stated that he aims at taking full advantage of the course expected to benefit 40 coaches in the country in order to kick start his life on the sidelines.

“The coaching journey has just started. This is just like an introduction to coaching for us - how to handle your players, how to train your players. For me, it is important because I am still involved in football since I have my own team and then when you look into the future I would love to coach some of our clubs professionally. The exciting part is gaining this knowledge and no matter how long it takes to get there, the knowledge will be valuable to me,” he said to Mozzart Sport.

Since retiring from football, Balo has trudged on a successful path off the field. The one-time Gor Mahia player has his own football academy and has also been named a brand ambassador for Talanta Bora – another football academy - where he gets to hone his skills. The striker went on to open up on his dream of making it to top-level coaching.

“My personal target in the next two years is to start coaching in the National Super League at the very least with the end goal being to coach in the top tier Kenyan premier league one day. The most important thing right now is first getting those papers and getting the requisite qualifications,” he remarked.

Balo also appreciated FKF’s efforts in conducting such capacity-building activities for local aspiring coaches in the country as it gives them a good foundation to build on.

“I can encourage them (FKF) to continue offering the courses because a lot of players want that information but they do not know where to start. To me, I finally feel good that I can finally get to do this and I laud the federation’s efforts for such activities,” he concluded.