Benni McCarthy: Biggest Losses in Harambee Stars Coach’s Managerial Career

Harambee Stars coach Benni McCarthy had a bad day at the office when his team lost 8-0 to Senegal in a friendly match on Tuesday.

McCarthy oversaw one of Kenya’s darkest days in football as his side could not match the star-studded Teranga Lions who were six goals to the good at halftime before completing the rout in the second stanza.

It was a painful lesson in McCarthy’s relatively young coaching career, which started in June 2017 when he took up his first job as a head coach, with South African side Cape Town City.

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So, where does the Senegal mauling rank in the worst defeats suffered in McCarthy’s coaching career?

McCarthy has not suffered many heavy losses in his managerial career and even he might have been shocked by how his team easily collapsed against the Teranga Lions.

His first big loss as coach came on December 5, 2017 when his Cape Town City suffered a 4-2 loss to Maritzburg United in a South Africa top flight clash.

Cape Town took a 17th minute lead and held on until the 54th minute when the floodgates opened as Maritzburg scored three goals in a 12-minute blitz before an own goal reduced the arrears for McCarthy’s team only for the visitors to score the fourth in stoppage time.

McCarthy would wait until September 2018 for another such defeat, this time to giants Kaizer Chiefs, who beat his Cape Town City 4-1 in a league clash on September 15, 2018.

Chiefs went ahead after 12 minutes before Cape Town equalised in the 25th minute and after a 1-1 at halftime, Amakhosi scored three in the second half to condemn Cape Town to the big loss.

McCarthy would not lose by a three-goal margin again until his stint with Kenya, having managed AmaZulu FC in between, where his losses never went past two goals.

His heaviest loss prior to Tuesday had been a 3-0 defeat to African champions Ivory Coast, who also toyed with his side in their final 2026 World Cup qualifier, on October 14, 2025.

The Ivorians scored after seven minutes but had to wait until the 54th for the second and the 84th for the third but it could have been more had the hosts taken most of their chances and the Kenyan goalkeeper not been up to task.

Kenya’s latest loss ranks as McCarthy’s heaviest and one he could not have imagined when he prepared his team for the contest in Turkey on November 18, 2025.

Senegal were 4-0 up inside 17 minutes and 6-0 at the break before two more goals completed the embarrassment in the second half.

However, while the scores were big, the losses were to giant teams, apart from Maritzburg United, which does not take away the fact that McCarthy is a good tactician who gets the best out of his teams when given time and the tools to do his job.

Kenyans will hope that the painful lessons picked against Senegal will be the first building blocks for a strong and successful Harambee Stars side in future.