Benni McCarthy admits Kenya face uphill battle in AFCON 2027 qualifiers

Kenya coach Benni McCarthy has admitted that the Harambee Stars face a difficult challenge ahead of their upcoming fixtures against some of Africa’s leading football nations, insisting the team is not yet at the level required to compete consistently with the continent’s strongest sides.

McCarthy, who took charge of the Kenyan national team with the country preparing to host the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations, painted a realistic picture of the challenges facing him and warned against expecting immediate results against teams with significantly stronger player pools.

The former South Africa international acknowledged that expectations will be high, but believes it would be unrealistic to demand victories over teams such as Bafana Bafana, Morocco and Senegal at this stage.

“You know, but if people are expecting me to beat Bafana, to beat Morocco, to beat Senegal, it’s very hard; it’s a very impossible task because of the players that those countries have and the leagues that they play for and the players that we have in Kenya,” McCarthy told the media.

A major concern for the coach is the limited number of Kenyan players competing in top European leagues, with many members of his squad coming from the domestic league.

“Not everybody plays in Europe, so a lot of our players come from the local leagues in Kenya,” he explained.

McCarthy also pointed to the timing of the domestic season as another challenge. While leagues across much of the world have already begun, the Kenyan Premier League had yet to start, leaving local-based players without competitive match action.

“And just so you know also, people are calling for Kenyan players, but the league has not even started. So, none of the players in Kenya have played a single league match,” he said.

The coach questioned how he could select players who had not yet played a competitive match while international-based footballers were already involved in active league campaigns.

“So how do you select players who haven’t even played, and the rest of the world, the competitions have already started? So, I think from the outside it’s always easy.”

McCarthy also took aim at the perception that coaching a national team is straightforward, arguing that the reality becomes much clearer once someone is directly involved in the job.

“Everybody on the outside is the best coach, the best players. But when you get a chance to be on this side, then you see how hard it is.”

With Kenya preparing for major assignments and the 2027 AFCON on home soil, McCarthy is already facing pressure to raise the level of the national team.

However, his comments suggest that he sees the rebuilding process as a long-term project rather than one that can be solved overnight, particularly given the current limitations of the domestic league and the number of players competing at the highest levels abroad.