Football Kenya Federation’s (FKF) latest nationwide Under-15 talent identification exercise is giving Kenya a chance to build a reliable pathway for tracking and nurturing young footballers instead of allowing promising players to slip through the cracks.
Being conducted by FKF-trained scouts and coaches, the nationwide boys’ and girls’ assessment is targeting players who could feature in the upcoming Confederation of African Football (CAF) African Schools Football Championship 2026 CECAFA Zonal Qualifiers and other national assignments.
Shaban Barasa Masika, who led the scouting exercise in Machakos County, believes continuity in talent identification will be crucial in ensuring promising players remain within the national development system.
“With this kind of continuity in Talent Identification, Kenya will have a good pathway to track players and keep them in the database. This way talent is nurtured consistently and not lost,” said Masika on August 12.
Masika described his deployment to Machakos as a great honour and noted that the first nationwide exercise of its kind in a long time had exposed considerable talent among the boys.
“I must say the boys have good talent. What they now need is consistent nurturing and structure,” he added.
He commended FKF, the SAB Branch and SAB County for insisting Under-13 and Under-15 leagues be played, saying regular competition would make the federation’s assessment and monitoring work easier.
The Machakos exercise was conducted alongside similar assessments in other parts of the country as FKF seeks to strengthen its grassroots talent identification structures.
In Nakuru, Technical Officers George Ondula and Susan Wanjiru handled the Under-15 trials, while Nairobi and Machakos were covered by Technical Officer Jerim Owuor and scout Masika.
Masika said players identified in Machakos will advance to the final selection phase, where they will undergo further evaluation before potential integration into the Kenya Under-15 boys’ national team.
He said that he was pleased to have been part of the process and would forward players he believes have potential to the head coach for a final assessment during camp.
Masika noted that the exercise offered an important foundation for developing a structured national database of young players and ensuring talent identified at grassroots level is nurtured through the various stages of the national team pathway.
FKF-trained scouts and coaches have been on the ground across Garissa, Wajir, Homa Bay, Mombasa, Machakos, Nakuru, Nairobi, West Pokot, Embu, Samburu, Mumias, Eldoret and Kisumu as part of the Federation’s nationwide U15 talent identification programme.
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