FOOTBALL: With Fabisch, Kenyans dared to dream

German coach Bernard Zgoll in 1984 could not change fortunes for a nation brimming with talent.

Nigeria eliminated Kenya from the 1986 World Cup qualifiers with a humiliating 6-1 (3-0, 3-1) aggregate score in April, 1985.

In August of the same year, it was the turn of Algeria to eject Kenya from the 1986 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers with a 3-0 aggregate win.

It meant Kenya was out of international action for a whole year. The Kenya Football Federation executive, lead by chairman Joab Omino and secretary Sam Obingo, decided something had to be done.

Short-listed four

The upshot was the federation wrote to the German Embassy seeking their help in getting a coach to guide Kenya to the African Nations Cup finals that were to be held in Morocco in 1988.

Obligingly, the German embassy short-listed four available coaches including Reinhardt Fabisch and Zgoll.

The KFF settled on the little known Reinhard Fabisch for the simple reason they could afford him. The fresh faced, 36-year-old Fabisch, with no experience in international football put pen to paper on April 1987, to begin a decade-long, love-hate relationship with Kenyans.

He was to coach Kenya on three separate occasions and while in charge of Benin at the Africa Cup of Nations in Ghana eary this year, he told the Daily Nation he still haboured dreams of coaching Harambee Stars again.

“Fabisch was the coach with the least impressive CV and we settled on him because he was within our budget. We agreed to pay him Sh20,000 a month and cater for his accommodation and transport,” Obingo recalled. “When we engaged him he was a young man who still could play competitive football,” Obingo added.

What Fabisch did was to mould a very competitive Harambee Stars that stormed through the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers to book a place in the finals for the first time in 16 years playing attractive, flowing football. The team had David “Kamoga” Ochieng, Hassan “Carlos” Juma, John “Bobby” Ogolla, Micky Weche “T Nine”, George “Nyangi” Odembo and Ambrose “Golden Boy” Ayoyi, among others.

Fabisch also steered the Harambee Stars to the finals of the 1987 All Africa Games held in Nairobi where they lost to African giants Egypt through a last-gasp goal by Mohammed Ramadhan.

A new national hero had been unveiled and Kenyans took to him like fish to water. “Fabisch for President!” they chanted. “The Fabisch Magic” the local press screamed. But, as in life, nothing good lasts forever. Trouble had already started brewing between the federation and Fabisch over improvement of his contract.

Late that year, press reports indicated Fabisch had failed to travel with Stars to a build up tour of Iraq, perhaps to show his disgruntlement. The KFF suspended him with Omino saying: “If he wants to leave let him do so. He cannot hold us at ransom. Coaches come and go by the dozen.”

He was back nine years, later in 1996, to succeed Montenegrin Vojo Gardesevic. The older Fabisch then showed he was a bold tactician. He returned with the Stars from a 1998 World Cup qualifier away to Guinea which Kenya lost 3-1. He then took the side to Sudan for the Cecafa Challenge Cup and after a dismal showing, Fabisch decided he had had enough.

He  dismantled Vojo’s squad and built a brand new side composed of youngsters the likes of Kennedy Simiyu, John Lichuku, Eric “Cantona” Omondi, John “Baresi” Odhiambo and Maurice Wambua. The country held its breath when the mighty Nigerians came calling in January, 1997. There was celebration as Fabisch conjured up an unlikely 1-1 draw against the Super Eagles comprising Nwankwo Kanu, Austine Okocha, Sunday Oliseh, Finidi George and co.

Fabisch recounted light-heartedly how jubilant fans hoisted him in the air in congratulation. When he was placed back on terra firma, his pockets had been emptied of their contents.

Fabisch took the peculiar  “thank you” in his stride but was to again fall out with the KFF under the chairmanship of Peter Kenneth over contractual matters.

A new office chaired by Maina Kariuki promised Kenyans a “Christmas gift,” in 2001 and they duly brought Fabisch back for a third stint – on a basic salary of $6,000 (Sh396,000) a month.

The country could dream about football glory again. “We believed in a coach who had taken Kenya far. We picked on him because he was so popular. We did what Kenyans wanted,” Swaleh Hussein, who was then KFF secretary said.

Big honour

Fabisch built another team. The passing game was still there, but with no outstanding talent, Fabisch worked on team work, hard work and mental strength.

“It is a big  honour to play Nigeria. But we’ve just trained for  a few days so we can’t expect miracles. It will be a big surprise if we win,” he said forthrightly, before Kenya faced Nigeria in a friendly in Abuja in May, 2002. Nigeria duly won 3-0.

Indeed, Fabisch was never a man to mince words. He spoke what he felt without fear. Pressure had earlier been building on him to resign after Kenya lost 2-1 to Ethiopia in the final of Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup in Rwanda in 2001.

“If Kenyans think a silver medal is nothing, then perhaps they need Jesus as their coach,” he retorted at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on return as his team was roundly criticised.

He later left, minus the millions the KFF owed him.

“He was a friend. He was a great coach. He left because we could not work together,” Swaleh said.

Fabisch was in the news early this year at the African Cup of Nations finals when, as the Benin coach, he announced he had been approached to fix a match.

“Fabisch was a nice man. Quite temperamental. But if you understood him you could work well with him, Obingo said.

Fabisch died on Saturday from cancer.