A tournament organised by Kenya’s largest mobile phone operator featured teams from all of Kenya. Including the finest of GAFFER’s young stars! Titus Eluid – our main man in Kenya provides the story.

GAFFER ran several selection sessions involving with players from both the Men and Under 16 teams. The best players between the age of 16 and 23 year old were assembled for an intensive week long training camp.

The kids were well prepared for the tournament in several areas, spending full days training on the playing grounds practicing a lot of different drills. It was nice to have professional coach Mr Mohammed around in the sessions, as he shared a lot of knowledge with the players including tactical training in the evenings of each training day to test our progress.

The 15th April was the day of the event and we set off to Voi, where the event was taking place. In the event, there were 16 teams divided in 2 groups A & B playing in a knockout format. We were in group B playing against a good team from Voi in the third knockout of the day. In the first half the boys played an excellent match; at half time we were leading by 2 goals to nil! In the second half things changed when the referee from Voi awarded a free kick to the opponents, which lead to a goal. Two minutes later they were given a penalty and they made it 2-2 at full time. As it is in all competitions, there must be a winner and a loser. Sadly, we lost in a very confusing way, being disqualified because of a technicality. However, in the end we received certificates of participation for each player and a ball for the team. It was a really good experience for the players and we are now preparing hard for the coming events.