Michael Olunga is desperately looking forward to leading Kenya to her first ever Fifa World Cup in Qatar.
Kenya is in Group E of the second round of the qualifiers, alongside Mali, Uganda and Rwanda.
The Kashiwa Reysol forward wants to guide the East African nation to her maiden appearance at the biggest football stage in the world. But this dream, though, could come down crashing unless Kenya pays former Harambee Stars head coach Adel Amrouche KSh109 million ( approximately USD10 million)
Amrouche was awarded the cash by the Fifa’s Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) for wrongful dismissal.
Kenya has until the end of April to pay the money failure to which the country could be struck off the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers.
Unfortunately, Football Kenya Federation is currently unable to pay the fine and the FA’s president Nick Mwendwa has even hinted that they would rather forfeit the qualifiers than pay the Belgian.
“We are still engaging the government to pay Amrouche because we don’t have the money but we will not use Fifa development funds to pay one person even if it means we’ll be struck off the qualifiers,” Mwendwa said recently in an interview with a local station — Radio Jambo.
But Olunga, just like every single Kenya player, is still holding on to the elusive dream of playing at the World Cup despite the back and forth between the federation, Fifa and Amrouche.
“Every single player dreams of playing in the World Cup,” Olunga told Fifa.com.
But even as Kenyans wait to see what will unravel after the April 30th deadline, Olunga said he is still upbeat that Stars can overcome the odds if they go ahead and compete at the Qatar qualifiers despite Kenya’s poor performance at the 2019 African Cup of Nations in Egypt.
“If you look at these teams, Uganda and Mali were at the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, and they progressed to the Round of 16, too, while we were eliminated after the group stage. If you look at it that way, we are one of the weaker teams in the group.
“But football is changing and each and every one has the opportunity to play home and away, so you have the same advantages as your opponents in a sense.
But for Stars to go to Qatar, itwill take a little luck and hard work on the part of the players and of course full commitment by FKF to pay Amrouche his dues.
“It’s all about trying to work hard, taking advantage of when you play your home games and finding ways to get results, and sometimes you need a little bit of luck.
“But you can’t depend on luck entirely. We will work hard and try to give it a good push,” added the Harambee Stars lead striker and the first Kenyan to have scored a hat trick in the Spanish La Liga when he turned out for Girona FC.
The former Thika United, Tusker and Gor Mahia forward has also played in China, Sweden.