South African former striker Benni McCarthy, 47, has been unveiled as the new head coach of Kenya’s national men’s football team, the Harambee Stars.
McCarthy, who was previously the attack coach at English Premier League side Manchester United, has signed a two-year deal at a time when Kenya is preparing to co-host the 2027 TotalEnergies-backed Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) with Uganda and Tanzania.
“I am delighted to be here, and I am proud to have taken on this challenge with a national team that has a lot of potential,” he said on Monday, 3 March 2025.
According to Hussein Mohamed, president of Football Kenya Federation, McCarthy hails from a country where the football scene has flourished, and the soccer legend is the best choice to replace Engin Firat, who was dismissed after failing to lead the Stars to the 2025 AFCON, to be hosted in Morocco from December 2025 to mid-January 2026. Will he turn around Kenyan football?
“We are confident that Benni is the right person to lead our national team forward. His experience, vision, and commitment to developing Kenyan football align perfectly with our ambitions. We had a long list of coaches who were interested, but when we looked at what he brings to the table, we were convinced it was the right decision,” Hussein said.
Interestingly, the Bafana Bafana squad (South Africa) will participate in this year’s AFCON, which will be hosted in Morocco from December 2025 to mid-January 2026. Kenya’s hopes were dashed after a 1-1 draw against Zimbabwe in Polokwane on Friday, 15 November.
For a long time, Kenya has missed out on major tournaments in football, but hopes are now high as McCarthy, a decorated striker and top scorer at the 1998 AFCON, is expected to rewrite the rules of football in Kenya and turn around the country’s fortunes.
At club level, he won the UEFA Champions League with FC Porto and had a distinguished career with Blackburn Rovers and West Ham in England before finishing his playing career at Orlando Pirates in 2013.
This marks his first national team managerial role, and in Kenya, he will be joined by familiar faces such as Vasili Manousakis as Assistant Coach, Moeneeb Josephs as Goalkeeping Coach, and Pilela Maposa as Performance Analyst.
Apart from the World Cup, McCarthy has his sights set on AFCON and the CAF African Nations Championship, also known as CHAN. AFCON and CHAN are the two biggest football competitions in Africa, with CHAN alternating with AFCON every two years, and the winner of either competition being crowned African champions.
“For World Cup qualification, we want to showcase ourselves and make a strong impression. We want to make Kenyans proud by hosting CHAN and AFCON and seeing the national team reach the latter stages or even the final,” McCarthy said.
“We just need to change the mentality of the players and not give up hope. This campaign can be successful, and anything is possible. We will work hard with the players and staff, and we aim to finish in the top two of our group.”
On Foreign Coaches
Over the past three decades, Kenya’s national football team has been managed by several foreign coaches, but McCarthy is one who Kenyans can truly relate to. Other well-known former Kenyan head coaches include Reinhard Fabisch, Antoine Hey (who succeeded Francis Kimanzi), Adel Amrouche, Bobby Williamson, Paul Put, Sebastian Migné, and Engin Firat, who had a disastrous start when the Harambee Stars lost 5-0 to Mali in the recent 2022 World Cup qualifiers.
Kenya has been a favourite for foreign coaches. In 1992, for example, Gerry Saurer, an Austrian, was appointed national team coach. Saurer’s appointment was unexpected, given his background as a hotelier with unclear football coaching credentials.
He began as AFC Leopards coach in the mid-1980s before becoming the head coach of the under-21 team and eventually taking over the national team in 1992 during the Africa Cup of Nations. He was later replaced by Montenegrin Vojo Gardasevic, who had been successful as the coach of Gor Mahia.
Kenya won the 2017 CECAFA Senior Challenge under Belgian coach Paul Put, who had previously coached clubs like Lokeren, Lierse, and Mouscron, as well as national teams like Gambia, Jordan, and Burkina Faso. Put resigned in February 2018 after just three months in charge, with Kenya preparing for a 2019 AFCON qualifier against Ghana.
Frenchman Sebastian Migné took over in May 2019 and is the only Kenyan head coach to have recorded victories over Ghana and Ethiopia, despite limited experience, with his only notable previous role being head coach of Congo-Brazzaville.
For McCarthy, however, the job will not be complete until he achieves good results with the Harambee Stars, particularly at the TotalEnergies Africa Nations Championship (CHAN), which is set to be co-hosted by Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania in August. He will also face Gambia away and host Gabon in the next two rounds of the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
On CHAN, McCarthy said: “As hosts, we definitely want to give a good account of ourselves and do everything we can as a team to make Kenyans proud. The target for CHAN and the AFCON in 2027 is, of course, to see the team play in the latter stages, whether in the semis or even the final. With hard work, it is possible.”
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