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Congolese player blasts Kenya for ‘pathetic’ training pitch


A Congolese international has termed as “poor” the training conditions that his team has been subjected to by Kenyan football authorities ahead of a high profile friendly match against Harambee Stars.

Since Monday, the star studded Leopards have been training in Nairobi ahead of Sunday’s international friendly match set for Kenyatta Stadium in Machakos County.

However, the state of the training ground at the Kenya School of Monetary Studies in Nairobi is what seems to be of concern to pacy winger Jose Mpoku, so much so that the Greece based player has taken to social media to lament over the same.

In a 15-second clip he has since posted online, the Panathinaikos attacker first exposes what seems to be a poorly trimmed pitch that has a “bald” centre, before stating, “This is the training pitch here, thank God I am not training”.

He thereafter focuses the camera on himself and colleagues in the stands and shakes his head.

STAR PLAYERS

Incidentally, the KSMS pitch is one of those earmarked to be used by teams during the Africa Nations Championship (Chan) tournament which will be staged in Nairobi in January next year.

Ironically, the Ugandan national team, which is also in the country for another friendly match on Thursday don’t seem to have any problems.

The Cranes, under the tutelage of Serbian coach Milutin Sredojevic, trained at the Camp Toyoyo grounds in Nairobi on Tuesday evening, in readiness for the clash.

Stars coach Stanley Okumbi has a selected all his star players for the two matches, including captain Victor Wanyama, Micheal Olunga and Jesse Were.

However, Humphrey Mieno, Victor Oburu, Maurice Ojwang, Sammy Meja and Jeremiah Wanjala have been dropped from the team.

Kenya beat DR Congo 1-0 and drew 0-0 with Uganda in their most recent international friendly matches played away from home.