In an effort to nurture football talent in Elgeyo Marakwet County, the Football Kenya Federation (FKF) local branch has selected 44 upcoming players aged under 15.
The players were identified during a successful tournament dubbed Back to School, held at the Iten Sports Ground.
According to the local FKF Chairman Boaz Kaino, the team was selected from around 700 children who turned up for the tournament.
The players, Kaino said, will be taken for camp training from April next year, adding that the federation will also help in fixing them to schools offering the sports pathway.
Kaino said in its efforts to identify more talents, the federation will organise other tournaments in the different sub-counties, which will be held in April and August before coming together for the finals in December, saying this will help in accommodating more teams.
Vice chair Dominic Otieno appealed for funding from the county and private companies willing to sponsor them to enable them to hold the camp in April as planned.
He added that they will also be holding a training session for coaches while calling on teachers to attend.
Otieno said teachers were best placed to handle children, hence the importance of training them as coaches.
The branch FKF Women Representative Fraksline Oyako appealed to women teachers to attend in large numbers, saying they were key in the promotion of women football.
She noted that in the just-concluded tournament there was no female team.
Oyako said this was because parents did not feel comfortable releasing their underage daughters without a female teacher who would be in charge.
By Alice Wanjiru
