The 47-year-old was officially unveiled as the new coach for the East African nation after signing a contract that will run until the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) to be co-hosted by Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. McCarthy's first assignment will be the World Cup qualifying matches against the Gambia away on March 17th, and the home game against Gabon on March 24th.
Kenya kicked off their qualification campaign with a 2-1 defeat against Gabon, recovered to beat Seychelles 5-0, drew 1-1 against Burundi and secured a vital 0-0 draw against African champions Ivory Coast.
As it stands, Kenya are lying fourth in Group F with five points, five less than leaders Ivory Coast, while Gabon are second with nine points and Burundi third with seven points.
Speaking on Kenya’s chances to qualify, the former Bafana Bafana striker stated that he had not lost hope, insisting that anything was possible for the East African nation to qualify and grace the global competition for the first time in their history.
“It is not about where the team is at the moment, there are so many games left to play, Kenya have only played four matches, they are not far behind, Ivory Coast are topping and Gabon are second, but like I said, we have two games to try change players’ mindset,” McCarthy told Flashscore after the unveiling ceremony.
“It is possible that with the players in the team, if we win two games, we go to 11 points and we move close to the top, I have not lost hope, even though it looks like it is not possible, nothing is impossible, come at the end of the qualifiers, we could be close to topple Ivory Coast, and we are very positive to achieve that.”
Kenya will co-host the 2024 Africa Nations Championships (CHAN) alongside Uganda and Tanzania and asked his targets for the tournament, McCarthy, whose last stint was the assistant coach at Manchester United, said: “We want to win every point that is available to us, I am not saying it is going to be easy, but with the quality of players we have, we can achieve it.
“We have to be really positive and the players must see that, the players must see that the coaches that have been unveiled are winners, they want to win every game.”
McCarthy continued: “For the 2024 CHAN, the tournament is in Kenya and we want to showcase our skills and make a good account of ourselves, and we want to succeed, not to be failures, we want to do well, we want to reach the semi-finals and even reach the final, I know with hard work, it is very possible.”
On what he wants to achieve with Harambee Stars, he said: “I want to make Kenya, the best team that East Africa has ever seen before, I strongly feel, if we can fix the national team, then Kenya will go far. For me, it is about passion in people’s faces, and that means they really love the country and so far the national team has not produced what they want.
“The way we want to work, the way we want to achieve things, people will be surprised to see what we will achieve, and with the team I am coming along with, I don’t think anything will stop us from achieving what we want to achieve and make the fans happy.”
Asked what plans, he has for the young players in the country, McCarthy, who won the UEFA Champions League with Porto, explained: “I am a very big fan of giving young players an opportunity, I don’t care what is your age and I don’t see why we should shun young players, I give young players a chance always, and I will do so.
“I want to spend a lot of time to know coaches of teams in FKF Premier League, so we can have an understanding so they can work with us to bring up young players, there must be a good relationship between national team coaches and local coaches, so that we can be able to give young players the opportunity to grow and one day represent Harambee Stars at the highest level, that is how I will do things.”
On why he picked Kenya despite having on the table other offers to coach elsewhere, the South African said: “I came to Kenya because of transparency from FKF, they were open and honest and in Africa as a South African, that is always the biggest challenge, there is no transparency.
“I grew up in Africa and I am accustomed to that, and then I got educated in Europe, but deep down inside, I know how Africa functions but I have also learnt how to do things in Africa, I want to make sure that the players understand they can succeed through handwork and pursuing what they want, and that is what the President of FKF and vice-president assured me.”
Asked on his few days in Kenya, since he arrived ahead of the unveiling ceremony, McCarthy said: “For the past few days, I have been driving around, going around Kenya, and I have never felt at home anywhere, in my entire football career as Kenya, not because I am the new coach now, but I feel like I am Kenyan.”
McCarthy continued: “At the moment my family is in the UK, but they are suffering (because of the weather), I don’t want to leave Kenya in a hurry, I will be here as much as possible, I will be in Kenya for as a long as possible, to try and watch local matches, and also visit players, who play in Europe, so they don’t feel neglected, we will try to visit all the players, so that when they come to camp, they will arrive in smiles and the results will be in our favour.”
Mohammed explains why McCarthy for Kenya
FKF President Hussein Mohammed discussed why they settled for McCarthy to replace Turkish Engin Firat, who left the role after he failed to guide Harambee Stars to the 35th edition of 2025 AFCON tournament in Morocco.
“Many people have asked why a foreign coach, why can’t we build our own? Don’t we have our own, who can do the job? And why McCarthy? We have good coaches around, but you have seen the level where Benni (McCarthy) has played, and where he has coached, Manchester United, AmaZulu FC, we have a good coach in our hands, and this is the kind of coach we wanted for our team to prosper,” Mohammed told Flashscore.
“We had a number of coaches, who had applied for the job, but we had to decide, who was the best coach to fit in and take us places, we ended up to settle for McCarthy, who has done well in Europe, someone, who has performed better in Africa, as a player and as a coach, someone, who has experience in Africa and McCarthy fitted the bill very well, and that is why we settled for him.”
Mohammed continued: “McCarthy played in the AFCON, he played in the World Cup, Kenya has never played in the World Cup and he won the Champions League, we are on a good track, he is the one to help us, he is the one to take us to AFCON and World Cup.
“He has the fire in the belly, he is one of those players and now one of those coaches, who have started to do things the right way, we have talked a lot, he is as Kenyan as it can get, he is African, he understands, Kenya and we looked at his individual skills, looked at his exposure, he has what it takes to deliver for this country, and felt he was the right man.”
Asked if FKF had put in place plans to pay the coach promptly and avoid cases from previous regimes where coaches claimed unpaid salaries and allowances, Mohammed said: “The responsibility of the national team lies with the government, they take care of the bills, when it comes to facilitating the team.
“It is not different here (with McCarthy’s case), we have a little bit of history, coaches saying they haven’t been paid, but I am reassured that we will not be dealing with the same problems from the past, we are working closely with the government and I know we are not going to have such problems in the future.”
Mohammed further said McCarthy will be given a free hand to do his job, adding that the local federation will not interfere with his work.
“There will be zero interference from FKF on national team matters, the federation is committed to give all manner of support to the team, but we will not dictate to coaches on what to do, on what players to call to camp and what players to field during matchdays, no one from my office will tell McCarthy what to do, we want them to do their work,” offered Mohammed.
“It is a long journey and it starts from somewhere, please be patient, I ask Kenyans to be patient, we will do our job, we have the support from the government and sponsors, who are coming in, we believe we have put the most dedicated technical bench to take our football forward.”
He will be assisted by Vasili Manoussaki, Joseph Moeneb (goalkeeper coach) and Pilela Maposa (performance analyst).
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