NAIROBI, Kenya, September 5, 2025 – Harambee Stars captain Michael Olunga has vowed to fight for a spot in next year’s World Cup despite all hope of qualifying seemingly lost for them.
Olunga believes they can still make a good case for a place at the global competition by winning all their remaining matches in the ongoing qualifiers.
“In football, it is never over till it is over. We will fight until the last match of the qualifiers and we want to try and win all of our matches. We have seen the result of yesterday’s match between Gabon and Seychelles and that means the maximum we can get to is 18 points,” the Al Arabi marksman said.
Benni McCarthy’s charges sit fourth in Group F with six points, a massive 10 behind Gabon who thrashed Seychelles 4-0 on Tuesday.
Group favourites Ivory Coast are second with the same number of points as the West Africans, albeit with an inferior goal difference.
With the top two teams having a chance to grace next year’s World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada, Harambee Stars will need a miracle in order to have a sniff at a possible qualification.
Their ‘mission impossible’ kicks off on Friday evening when they lock horns with the Gambia in their reverse fixture of their qualifier at the Kasarani Stadium.
The two sides played out a thrilling 3-3 draw in their first meeting in Abidjan in March this year.
Olunga says the team want nothing better than to subdue the Scorpions and come away with all the points.
“Well, of course, we want to get maximum points against Gambia. As we saw in the first leg, they are a very compact team that is very hard to beat but I believe we have assembled a good squad that is capable of taking maximum points,” he said.
Even in the event that they fail to secure qualification, Olunga is confident the experience will be good preparation for upcoming competitions, particularly, the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon).
“Apart from that we have to build a team for the next coming assignment and also in terms of our Fifa rankings, we also have to compete fairly. This will ensure that in the classification or pooling for the next qualifiers, we will be in a better position,” the skipper said.
