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German legend Lothaur Mathaus adopts cub during Kenyan tour

By DAVID KWALIMWA September 21st, 2017 1 min read

German legend Lothar Matthaus on Wednesday wind up his two-day tour of Kenya by adopting a cub at the Nairobi Wildlife Park and naming it after his mother.

The ex-German captain was on an inspirational trip to the country which was organised by pay-TV firm StarTimes.

Mathaus, who won eight Bundlesliga titles during his two stints at Bayern Munich, named the cub Katarina Mara.

In the highlight of the 53-year-old trip, he visited the Mathare Youth Sports Association academy in Nairobi, and where he urged Africans teams to play as a unit to stand a chance of dominating at international competitions.

“How I see it from far is that African players want to shine in isolation. They want all the glory,” said the the 53 year old.

COACHING TIPS

“When you study them playing for their clubs in Europe, they do very well, but for their national teams the same player will probably think, ‘I wanna score so that I become the hero of this tournament’, which doesn’t help matters.”

Besides Nigeria and Cameroon’s triumph at the Olympic Games in 1996 and 2000 respectively, African teams have consistently struggled to reach the final stages of international tournaments.

Indeed, Cameroon’s quarter-final finish at the 1990 Fifa World Cup remains the continent’s best placed finish in the global football showpiece.

Meanwhile, Matthaus also took time to preach the culture of discipline and motivation to the local coaches, who included former Harambee Stars custodian Mohammed Abass.

“You rather have eleven players on the pitch who believe in you and your discipline other than the best eleven players available.”

The ex-Germany captain, who was voted as the world’s best player in 1991, also shared an hour long on-the field coaching tips with dozens of players affiliated to the MYSA U-14, U-16 and women football teams.