The Kisumu Central football team have landed an invite to play in the annual Gothia Cup in Sweden next month after winning the SKF ‘Meet the World’ tournament over the weekend at Jomo Kenyatta Sports ground.
Kisumu Central won the under-15 title after beating Atlentic Zaji 2-0 in the final match in a tourney which attracted eight teams. The local tournament is part of SKF’s global Corporate Social Responsibility project, which runs in over 20 countries all over the world and is dubbed ‘Meet the World’ tourney. SKF Kenya Ltd managing director & regional manager for Eastern Africa, Harris Kariuki, said the company opted to work with the Kisumu Youth Olympic Centre because they already had the under-15 league and have fielded a winning team in the past.
“Kenya did not have a team last year but we are changing that to ensure we participate annually. This year, we decided to work with the Kisumu Youth Centre who already have a league. However, next year we plan to make it bigger working with teams from at least three counties competing for the Gothia Cup slot,” he said.
He added” The quality of game we witnessed here today gives us hope that football is not dead in Kenya. If we want to grow football to the top leagues in the world, this age is the best place to start,” said Kariuki.
James Diang’a, the coordinator of Kisumu Youth Olympic Centre, said he works with youth from disadvantaged backgrounds and mainly uses sports to keep them away from drug abuse and crime. KYOC girls’ featured in Gothia Cup in 2009 and 2011, winning the latter.
