Fresh from their exploits at the inaugural CAF Women's Champions League, Vihiga United have set their sights on scaling up to new heights in the upcoming season.
The 2019 -20 WPL champions have been the most consistent clubs in the women’s game and this has come at a price and sacrifice.
Holding onto their best players during this period and having a good technical bench plus support from the Vihiga County Government is the recipe that has made them a household name in the recent past.
2021 will forever remain in the hearts of many football lovers for Vihiga defied all odds to win the CECAFA Women's Club cup in Nairobi, beating CBE of Ethiopia 2-1 in the final. CBE had smashed Vihiga 4-2 in the opener and many thought that they were finished.
The success story of the Queens cannot be told any better but for the club’s CEO Michael Senelwa, building the strong unit has been a process.
“Our team has cohesion and culture and it's because of the player retention and also a few other members of the technical bench have been with us since 2014.” exclusively told TeamKenya.
Senelwa has noted the success of the team was attributed to the ability to hold their senior players since 2014.
“We have a very clear vision that we have communicated to every supervisor in the team. The players have supervisors (technical team), who understand the vision and take it to the players.”
“The vision is we want to be the best team in Kenya, the best team in East and Central Africa and eventually become the best or one of the best teams in Africa.”
“This has been our vision since 2014 and we have been working on it. The strategy around this is ensuring that we win domestic championships which we have been three times Kenya women Champions, that is how we qualified for the regional championship winning CECAFA and that’s how we found ourselves CAF championship.”
“We were hoping to compete favorably at CAF, but it being our first time we thank God for the far we reached in the competition. Next year we are looking forward to being at CAF,” Selenwa pointed out.
In terms of improving the squad the Senelwa says that the current team is already strong noting some improvement will be made as the season progresses.
Claims of departures and players wanting out is definitely something that will come out at this time but Senelwa has rushed to quell the rumours with the latest being that of winger Violet Nanjala who is reported to be headed back to Trans Nzoia Falcons.
The Falcons say that Nanjala is till their player but Senelwa has clarified that this is not true.
“Those claims are just rumors Violet Nanjala is a Vihiga Queens Player,” Senelwa claims.
Enez Mango, the Vihiga Queens captain after the CAF champions league tournament exit noted that playing in the tournament was very valuable to them.
She noted that playing at the inaugural TotalEnergies CAF Women’s Champions League increased their appetite to qualify again for the next edition
“The tournament was very interesting and an eye opener to us as a team.”
“We have learnt valuable lessons and next time we shall come back stronger because we now know what to do and how to handle certain aspects,” the captain stated.
At the moment the Women's Premier League has been suspended for two weeks by the Football Kenya Federation Caretaker Committee for regularisation purposes.