If only he had stayed back: Bernhard Zgoll discovered Kenya’s football

 Bernhard Zgoll

The Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) in Gabon has only Uganda as the country representing East Africa. Never mind, a third of the Cranes; footballers played in the Kenyan Premier League (KPL).

Kenya has only featured in Afcon five times: In 1972, when the late Jonathan Niva was captain and coach (after coach Eckhardt Krautzun bolted), 1988, 1990 and 1992. Kenya was to host the 1996 Africa Cup of Nations, but Job Omino, head of the defunct Kenya Football Federation (KFF) was in the opposition. The Kanu administration saw it fit to withdraw!

Kenya last took part in Afcon in 2004, when we were eliminated in the first round, the first such poor performance since 1972. But if there was ever a coach who laid the foundations of soccer in Kenya, it was German tactician, Bernhard Zgoll. He was brought to Kenya by astute sports manager, Kenneth Matiba, then head of KFF, managing director of Kenya Breweries, formidable businessman, politician and later Second Liberation hero.

In his threadbare bio, Aiming High: The Story of My Life, Matiba writes how he envisioned the training of future footballers by appealing to Germany for a coach. They brought Bernhard Zgoll and footed his bills. That was in 1974, a year after Matiba founded KFF.

Zgoll founded the Olympic Youth Centres in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu and Nakuru, and with them, a golden generation of players: Wilberforce Mulamba, Ambrose ‘Golden Boy’ Ayoyi, Bobby Ogolla, Sammy Taabu, Hussein Kheri, Josephat Murila, Austin Oduor, Mahmoud Abbas, Sammy Owino ‘Kempes’...are some of the soccer diamonds Zgoll unearthed in the rough.

Recalls Matiba in Aiming High: “Boys aged between 12 and 15 years were recruited and received training under Zgoll and his assistant, Jonathan Niva and other coaches he had selected in every town. And indeed that effort bore fruits with the discovered talents forming the backbone of soccer in the years that followed.”

With Zgoll’s structures and Matiba’s vision, Harambee Stars won our first Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup in 1975. Zgoll’s successor, coach Marshall Mulwa, inherited footballers who went on to win the Senior Challenge Cup back-to-back in 1981, 1982 and 1983.

The East and Central Africa Clubs Championships were also routinely exchanged between Gor Mahia, AFC Leopards and Kenya Breweries FC (now Tusker) for 10 years to 1987...also the year Gor Mahia won the Mandela Cup and Harambee Stars were runners up in the 4th All Africa Games!

Zgoll left Kenya for Manila in 1978, only to return six year later, but left for good in 1984 after head honchos at KFF demanded overnight results!

If only Bernhard Zgoll had stayed back.