Bandari Recruits 3 Girls Signs One Year Contract with Diani Queens

By Caroline Katana

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Bandari queens signs a year contract with Diani queens after recruiting three of its girls to join them

Bandari Queens officials discovered the talents during Kwale Women League finals supported by Tandaza Trust in December 2023.

Bandari’s head coach Janet Amunga said the club had amicable procedures of recruiting footballers from different places.

“We have recruited two players from Diani queens Leila Bakari striker and Mariam Abdallah and one Chikophe Kazungu who was yet to join a team, there have been a complain that we are poaching players without following the right procedures but today I want to prove to people that we have procedures of recruiting players in our club.”

She said the main agenda of Bandari Club was to nurture talents and support young girls to fulfill their dreams in life.

“We don’t want to stay with these girls for long, if we get other opportunities out there we will automatically connect them and this will not be our success but for everyone involved in this journey.”

The Queens team manager Mureith Stephen said the club would support education of the selected three girls while promoting the talents at grassroots levels.

“We are in the forefront to ensure talented young girls get the right to education, we want them to be a motivational tool to other girls, our players are very young, some are in grade 8 and this tells us that in future we are going to have a generation of equipped players,” he said.

The manager noted the girl-child still lived in a challenging environment that required a lot of attention for her growth.

“I want to applaud their couch for mentoring them upto date, girl child face a lot of challenges in the society but we are here with them today this is a great achievement and i want to challenge other stakeholders to come in board and support girls grow their talents.”

On his side, the Diani Queens head coach Fredrick Wanyonyi Wafula said the team started in the year 2001 with the aim of promoting girls talents in soccer in the county.

“My aim is not seeing them playing in this region only but join premier, national and global teams, girls have been left behind for a long time so I decided to register them with a federation so as to get recognition globally.”

He said he was optimistic his team may become the first team in Kwale county to join Premier League.

Leila Bakari 14, a grade 8 student and a striker (number 7) in Diani. She is one of the players joining Bandari Club after Harambee Starlets motivated her become so.

“My dream is either to join FC Barcelona, Turkey or Newcastle. I’m happy to join Bandari today. I didn’t know one day I’ll reach duch a level in my footballing career,” she said.

Ndiro Bakari, a parent to Leila, confirmed that his his daughter showed her talent when she was nine years old.

“I used to oppose her dream of becoming a footballer so she took the matter to one of the sports teachers from kayatiwi, the teacher advised me on the same so I had to support her upto date, I’m happy today she is joing Bandari club and I take this opportunity to urge parents to support talents of their children especially girls.”

Speaking during the signing of the contract at Matuga NG-CDF office, Matuga MP Kassim Sawa Tandaza said plans were underway to build sports arena in the constituency.

“I already bought a land through the NG-CDF for the project, I understand we have talents on different fields like rugby, netball, basketball but the challenge remains to be the field to practice, for the first time I’ll be building a swimming pool for those with swimming talents, I know there youths who can swim to at there best level here in Kwale.”

The legislator Tandaza urged parents to stop practicing harmful culture and traditions that undermines girl-child development.

“We want to ensure there is Equality when it comes to talents nurturing, as we all know girls have been left behind for a long time interms of development let us give girls the required support,” he said.

The Tandaza Trust has organized a friendly tournament between Diani Queens vs Bandari Queens on Wednesday, 31st in Kwale and after the friendly match Bandari club officials will unveil the three players joining the club