South Africa legend Benni McCarthy took over as Kenya's Harambee Stars coach in March 2025 with a promise to deliver.
The immediate assignment was to help the East African nation secure its 2026 FIFA World Cup ticket. He started with a 3-3 draw away in Group F's fixture against The Gambia before losing 2-1 at home to Gabon which put them fourth on the table with just six points from as many games, 10 less than the leaders.
The next assignment will be against the Gambia and Seychelles, but the former Manchester United Strikers' coach sees no hope of making it for the global international competition to be held jointly by Canada, Mexico, and the United States.
Losing to Gabon was a massive setback – McCarthy
“I think the World Cup will be very difficult for us, World Cup 2026 in the United States, Canada, and Mexico for us to qualify,” McCarthy told CGTN Africa.
“Very difficult because the point gap between the first and fourth is where we are. Ivory Coast is top of our group, and they had a head start over us. My team and I, came in and straight away, we had two matches, we drew one and we lost one, unfortunately, to the second team in our group.
“So now, that kind of set us back a little bit but we tried our absolute best to try and give the country something to celebrate. And unfortunately, losing to Gabon kind of sets us back massively,” he added.
‘We have arrogance about us'
“But I like to say a team should be the reflection of the managers, the coaches, and if the coach lives by this code, then that’s the kind of way you work and you work your team. So that’s the goal. So everybody else that’s in our team, in our camp, they will know that’s how we are,” McCarthy continued.
“We have arrogance about us, but we are also still very humble and respectful. But when it comes down to us, or you winning the game, then it has to be us, because we just have that aggression, that bit of extra about us that we want to win. So we try and instill that into Kenya and Kenyan football,” he concluded.
The next assignment for Benni McCarthy will be in Chan, which starts on August 3 and will be jointly held by Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania.
