11 exit as new sherriff at Bandari embarks on purge
FKF Premier League outfit Bandari FC continued its squad overhaul yesterday with 11 players being shown the exit door.
The Dockers have confirmed parting ways with Darius Musagha, Zakayo Keegan, George Osama, Hamid Mohamed, Christopher Oduor, Faraj Ominde, Rodgers Aloro, Douglas Mokaya, Felix Oluoch, Ronny Otieno and Johan Mwita in what top official Twaha Mbarak termed as restructuring the squad ahead of the new season.
“We want to be ambitious in the coming season; we want to challenge for titles and our first decision was to make public players who will not be part of the squad.
Therefore, eleven have been listed and released and we wish them well in their next assignments,” Mbarak told People Sport, adding: “We are expecting to sign at least six players, and we have already shortlisted some of the new targets, we will make the list public soon.”
The Dockers, who are under a new board of directors, have also made changes to their technical bench with the arrival of former international Douglas Mutua as the new team manager, and former Harambee Stars striker John Baraza as the assistant coach.
Mbarak confirmed the appointment of the former Tusker FC player, who also played in the Middle East for Dhafar FC in the late 80s and early 90s as a replacement for Wilson Obungu.
“We have new arrivals on the technical bench, Douglas (Mutua) is our new team manager while Baraza has been signed as the assistant to Twahir Muhiddin,” said Mbarak.
He continued to state: “We have settled for Mutua because of his vast experience in the game and we know he has what it takes to help the team move forward as we want to achieve a lot of success in the new season.
For Baraza, we all know his achievements while playing for the national team and he has also been superb in some of the teams he has coached previously, he is a young tactician, who can blend well with Muhiddin and give us the result we want.”
Apart from playing for Tusker, Mutua also featured for Kenya’s national team Harambee Stars and later coached Coast Stars before he was appointed the head coach of Bandari in 2009.
Meanwhile, Baraza had an amazing career that saw him play for the national team 52 times, scored 21 goals, and was part of the Kenya squad that participated in the 2004 Africa Cup of Nations in Tunisia.
After quitting playing, Baraza moved into coaching and has so far handled among other teams, Sofapaka, Kakamega Homeboyz, and division one side Equity FC. Last season, the Coastal-based outfit finished the league in position six on the 18-team table, after amassing 60 points from 34 matches. They managed 18 wins, six draws and suffered 10 defeats.
