Newly elected Football Kenya Federation (FKF) President Hussein Mohammed has confirmed that Turkish tactician Engin Firat will no longer be the head coach of the men’s national football team, Harambee Stars.
This is after the underfire coach terminated his contract with the FKF less than one month after failing to steer the country to the Africa Cup of Nations 2025 set to be held in Morocco from 21 December 2025 to 18 January 2026.
“I would like to point out that the national team coach terminated his contract through a notice that was issued at the beginning of this week. The notice of (Firat’s) termination got to me on Tuesday evening. I was not privy to it and we will definitely do an internal audit on the claims of arrears.
Once the report comes out we will deal with the matter. The grounds for the termination is pending arrears,” Mohammed said in a press conference on Wednesday afternoon.
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Firat was appointed as the Harambee Stars head coach in September 2021 and oversaw 24 matches while in charge.
He managed to pick up seven wins in the 24 fixtures and only three of those victories came in competitive matches.
Firat’s tenure begun with two consecutive defeats at the hands of West African powerhouse Mali in the 2022 World Cup qualifying tournament.
He then picked up a draw against East African rivals Uganda before securing his first win against minnows Rwanda.
The 54-year-old later went on to guide Harambee Stars in several friendly matches before bagging his biggest win at the helm of Harambee Stars following a 5-0 victory over Seychelles in November 2023.
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According to Mohammed’s presser, Firat initially entered a two-month contract with the FKF in September 2021 that later earned a 4 year and 2-month contract extension till January 2026.
Part of his deliverables included steering Kenya to the AFCON 2023 and AFCON 2025 tournaments which would have earned him a two-year extension.
He however failed to achieve both feats with Kenya finishing third behind Cameroon and Zimbabwe in the just concluded AFCON 2025 qualifiers.
Harambee Stars results under Engin Firat
1. Mali 5-0 Kenya (Loss)
2. Kenya 0-1 Mali (Loss)
3. Uganda 1-1 Kenya (Draw)
4. Kenya 2-1 Rwanda (Win)
5. Iran 2-1 Kenya (Loss)
6. Pakistan 0-1 Kenya (Win)
7. Mauritius 1-0 Kenya (Loss)
8. Qatar 1-2 Kenya (Win)
9. Kenya 0-1 South Sudan (Loss)
10. Russia 2-2 Kenya (Draw)
11. Gabon 2-1 Kenya (Loss)
12. Seychelles 0-5 Kenya (Win)
13. Malawi 0-4 Kenya (Win)
14. Kenya 3-1 Zimbabwe (Win)
15. Kenya 1-1 Burundi (Draw)
16. Kenya 0-0 Ivory Coast (Draw)
17. Kenya 0-0 Zimbabwe (Draw)
18. Namibia 1-2 Kenya (Win)
19. Cameroon 4-1 Kenya (Loss)
20. Kenya 0-1 Cameroon (Loss)
21. South Sudan 2-0 Kenya (Loss)
22. Kenya 1-1 South Sudan (Draw)
23. Zimbabwe 1-1 Kenya (Draw)
24. Kenya 1-1 Namibia (Draw)
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