20th February, 2013
Kenya on Wednesday appointed former Algerian international Adel Amrouche as their national football coach to take over from Frenchman Henri Michel whose contract was terminated in December.
The 44-year-old naturalised Belgian, who quit his five-year stint as manager of Burundi after the team lost 2-1 to Zimbabwe in qualifying for the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations a year ago, beat out 20 other applicants for the vacant job.
“Maybe the Football Kenya Federation (FKF) did not pick a big name, but I can assure you they have picked a hard worker – someone who can change the face of Kenyan football and is ready to open doors of opportunity for Kenyan footballers everywhere in the world,” said Amrouche at a news conference.
“I have followed Kenyan football for quite sometime now and I believe it is time for a new approach for the future so that we can make Kenya one of the big names in the continent and in the world,” he added.
Amrouche said his immediate task was to prepare the Harambee Stars for the 2014 World Cup qualifying match against newly-crowned African champions, Nigeria in Calabar on March 23.
“My mission with Kenya is to win the qualifiers for both the 2014 World Cup and 2015 Africa Cup of Nations. It is a big challenge but I want to write my name in African football,” said Amrouche, who has also coached Equatorial Guinea and managed a number of Algerian clubs.
Kenya is due to meet Nigeria for a World Cup qualification match 23 March. The match will be played at UJ Esuene Stadium in Calabar, Cross River state, in southern Nigeria.