It was all joy and jubilation at the Kisumu regional commissioner’s office as hundreds of youngsters received their well-deserved cash awards following their impressive performance at the inaugural Talanta Hela Under 19 football tournament whose curtains rolled down on December 12, 2023, at the Nyayo National Stadium.
Participants from Busia, Kisumu, Homabay, Vihiga, and Kakamega counties converged at the office, all eager to receive their money slightly a month after the tournament ended.
For instance, the winners; Homabay and Busia counties participants went home Ksh160,000 richer each. The winning team was set to receive Ksh5 million.
According to the Ministry of Sports through the Kenya Academy of Sports, 80% of the money was paid to the players while the remaining 20% was distributed among the team officials.
Vihiga County which settled for third place received Ksh2.5 million. Each player went home with Ksh83,333.
The county’s captain Talena Ochieng was glad that he would finally pay his school fees, noting that the tournament had actualized his dream. The youngster received a call-up to join Ulinzi FC following his impressive exploits in the December showpiece.
“I want to thank Talanta Hela for giving us all this opportunity. This is the first time something like this is happening in Kenya. We expected to reach the final but we managed third position. We are preparing ourselves for this year’s tournament. We want to assure the county that we will improve on our last year’s performance and come at position two if not win the tournament,”
Ochieng further called for the inclusion of more disciplines in the tournament to ensure a surge of talent across all sports.
All the regional winners comprising 12 teams from both the girl’s and boy’s categories received Ksh500,000 each, totaling Ksh12 million.
The tournament winners walked away with Ksh5 million while the second and third-place finishers were set to pocket Ksh3 million and Ksh2 million respectively.
The fourth-place finishers went home Ksh1 million richer making the total amount of the awards for the national tournament Ksh22 million. Overall, Ksh34 million was used for awards to the regional and national winners.