Time to rejig Harambee Stars squad with focus on rising stars, says Muhiddin

Muhiddin’s sentiments come after Stars registered a disappointing season by failing to qualify for the AFCON 2025 by finishing third in Group J behind African heavyweights Cameroon and Zimbabwe.

He suggests that the team embrace youthful players from the Rising Stars, to blend with a few experienced players to form a lethal team that will be ready to compete going to AFCON 2027.

“There is already a good plan with the youth teams in the country and so we need to blend these youthful players with some experienced players to come up with a formidable team that is ready to compete and not just participating in the qualifiers or tournaments," he noted.

"The team formation is also a process and if we can give whichever coach we will have time - like about two years to come up with a team blended well with the youth and experienced players, then we will start reaping the fruits of our patience,” added Muhiddin

Muhiddin also thinks it is time local players fought hard to end the notion that abroad based players have a through pass into the national team.

"When the national team is doing well, then the players will get big offers from various teams and this is what we want. This should be the idea our coaches must work with, so that we have more competition between the local based players and the abroad based ones. The more we have our players in top clubs there, the more competitive we become as a country," he observed.

His remarks come amid speculations that the new Football Kenya Federation (FKF) boss Hussein Mohammed will hire a new Harambee Stars coach, to replace Engin Firat following the embarrassing failed AFCON 2025 qualification bid.