Benni McCarthy Reveals His AFCON 2027 Target for Harambee Stars

Harambee Stars coach Benni McCarthy had set his target for the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations which his team will be playing as one of the co-hosts next year.

Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania will be staging the tournament and having qualified as hosts, attention is on making an impact and McCarthy feels he has the talents to achieve something the country has never done.

Harambee Stars have been at AFCON on six occasions before in 1972, 1988, 1990, 1992, 2004 and 2019 but have exited at the group stage on all occasions but McCarthy is targeting at least the Round of 16 at next year’s tournament.

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“Kenya is an upcoming nation, an East African nation, a sleeping giant I feel, because the talents that I have seen over this year working in Kenya are immense,” McCarthy told South Africa’s CMTV.

“They have got a great mentality, good work ethic, fantastic running power and we want to try and convert that into football.

“The progress has been good but I think what I expect and see achievement wise since we are the host nation you want to at least get out of the group stages.”

However, McCarthy is pinning his hopes on a favourable AFCON 2027 draw for Kenya as he feels that would give them a chance to have the same run as the 2024 African Nations Championships (CHAN 2024) when they reached the quarter-final.

“I am praying that we don’t get a ‘Group of Death’ because that would really kill our chances. If you are in a group with Morocco, Ivory Coast or Senegal, then ‘Group of Death’ because you know for a fact you don’t have that kind of quality and prowess," he added.

“But if we are in a modest group, we can have a fighting chance and that is the first goal that we want to achieve, get out of the group and have the same impact we had when we played in the CHAN competition.

“We went to a quarter-final and that is a realistic target because South Africa, Nigeria…there are so many great countries with better opportunities, better players than what we have.”

Beyond an impressive AFCON 2027 run, McCarthy, whose contract runs up to next year’s tournament, is looking to leave a rich legacy when he finally leaves his role.

“That [Round of 16] would be a good starting point, a success for us, but beyond that is anyone's guess. I just want to make a difference, Kenyan football when you leave there, people would believe more in their football like they do in athletics,” McCarthy further stated.

“Athletics is like a religion for Kenyans but I want football to become on par with athletics because there are some football talents and hopefully, me and my team can achieve that because the people believe and are backing the national team.”