Key takeaways from Kenya's unsuccessful U17 AFCON qualifier campaign

The national U17 boys football team, Junior Stars, saw their 2026 U17 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) dreams go up in smoke after suffering a deflating defeat to hosts Ethiopia in the semi-final of the CECAFA qualifiers.

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The CECAFA region was scrambling for three slots to represent the region in the continental tournament, where Kenya U17 were seeking their maiden qualification.

The William Muluya-coached side were handed a 3-0 thumping in the third-place playoff that was held on Tuesday, 2 December at the Abebe Bikila Stadium in Ethiopia.

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With Kenya’s campaign done and dusted, Mozzart Sport takes a look at some of the talking points from the unsuccessful campaign.

Ill preparation cost us

The Junior Stars did not have the best of preparations heading into the tournament, and that manifested in the results.

A week to the start of the tournament, coach William Muluya was still conducting trials in a bid to find a perfect team for the qualifiers.

The team, therefore, trained together for only four days before the tourney. For such a high-level competition, Kenya was never going to get away with cheating on preparations.

In future, Kenya has to plan better for such tournaments, select the team early enough so that they can adequately prepare as a team.

An imbalanced team filled with individual brilliance

Throughout the tournament, one thing was clear: Kenya had an abundance of individual talents all over the team.

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In fact, the Junior Stars largely relied on the individual brilliance of some of the team members in matches.

However, as a team, Kenya struggled in many aspects. The link-up between defense and midfield was not the best; the awareness of the strikers when the wingers had the ball left a lot to be desired.

The imbalance was largely caused by the fact that the team only trained together for four days prior to the tournament.

Just like Harambee Stars, scoring was a problem

The inability to convert chances to goals seems to be a general Kenyan issue, as it manifests in all levels of the national team.

The senior national team, Harambee Stars, has been struggling to find a striker who consistently turns chances into goals.

The malady was also experienced with the Junior Stars, where several chances created, especially from the flanks, went begging, even as the team was struggling with qualification.

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Yusuf and Trevor stole the show

While there were several good players in the team that have promising futures, Junior Stars captain Yusuf Mohamed, as well as forward Trevor Nasasiro stole the show.

Yusuf was a commanding presence in midfield and largely operated as a box-to-box midfielder to link up with attackers, while Nasasiro was a headache to opposition defenses with his speed, dribbling and finishing.

If nurtured well, the two players are definitely destined for bright futures.

Weak central defense

One of the weak points in the Kenyan team was its defensive structure, where Cosmad Masitsa and Eugene Ochieng were at the centre.

Junior Stars conceded relatively cheap chances and goals, some of which can be directly attributed to the duo.

Their shakiness invited opponents to Kenya’s half and gave them confidence to attack. While they are good players individually, their partnership needs to be worked on more, even as the tournament highlighted areas that they need to improve on.

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Promising team

All said and done, the team gave a good account of themselves, especially with the limited preparations before the tournament.

Football Kenya Federation (FKF) must find a way of maintaining the core of this team, develop them through friendlies and intense training, as therein lies the next generation of Harambee Stars.

Developing young players to create channels and feeding systems for the Harambee Stars is one of the things we must do as a country if we are to develop the game.