Benni McCarthy reveals uncomfortable problem he’s facing 16 years after Blackburn Rovers exit | OneFootball

The former Blackburn star has moved into coaching since retiring as a player, but he's run into an issue as manager of the Kenya national team.

Former Blackburn Rovers star Benni McCarthy has moved into coaching since his retirement as a player, but he's run into an issue as manager of the Kenya national team which is making him feel uneasy.

From 2006 to 2009, Benni McCarthy was a familiar face to Blackburn Rovers supporters. The South African international joined the club from Porto in 2006 and stayed until 2009, running up 140 appearances and scoring 52 goals for the Ewood Park club.

McCarthy's time at Ewood Park came towards the end of a glittering career which saw him win league titles in three different countries and score 31 goals in 79 appearances for the South Africa national team, and since his retirement from playing he's moved into coaching.

He's been in his current position as the manager of the Kenya national team since the beginning of March 2025, but after a year and a half in the position, he's stated that both him and his coaching staff remain in an uncomfortable position over their eligibility to even be working in Kenya in the first place.

Benni McCarthy reveals that after 18 months in his current position, he still doesn't have a work permit

Action Images

The Lancashire Telegraph have reported the extraordinary position in which the former Blackburn striker McCarthy finds himself in as the coach of the Kenya national football team. The 48-year-old has revealed that neither he nor some of the other members of his backroom staff do not have working permits in Kenya.

McCarthy is reported to have told the Kenyan press that, "It’s been one-and-a-half-years now in Kenya but we don’t have work permits. We can’t work as illegal immigrants." The former international said: "I don’t want to be questioned by authorities on why I am in another country illegally. The people that deploy you must make sure you have them." At present, he has to leave the country at the end of every training camp that's held.

That's not the only issue that he's facing as their manager, either. McCarthy also revealed that some of his players have been boycotting training sessions because promised payments to them haven't been paid either: "For four to five camps, not receiving a cent of what was promised, of course, as a human being you will be like, is it worth it? Is it okay for the national team? Therefore, it becomes hard to manage players who have not been paid."

McCarthy has stated that he's sympathetic to the players' plight, saying that, "I understand the players’ frustrations, and they have had to make other arrangements." The Lancashire Telegraph report that, "Football Kenya Federation has since issued a statement saying the work permit issue is being addressed and insisting it remains focused on supporting the players ahead of the upcoming qualifiers."

What African fans are saying about the Benni McCarthy work permit situation

Action Images

Benni McCarthy's candid comments about the work permit position that he and his staff have faced has caused a storm of online comment from African fans. Here's a selection of what's being said about it all.

This South African fan feels that McCarthy should return to his home country, because there are many clubs in Premier League Soccer, their national football league, who could do with him:

But this South African fan feels that he knows where the blame lies for this situation:

As one of the co-hosts of AFCON 2027, Kenya need a well-coached, settled team

Action Images

There's little doubting Benni McCarthy's credentials as a player and a coach, to lead the Kenya national team. As a player, he made 80 appearances for the South Africa national team over 15 years, scoring 31 goals for them and appearing at the World Cup finals for them in 1998 and 2002. As a coach, his position with Kenya came about after he'd spent time on the coaching staff at Manchester United under Erik ten Hag.

And a strong performance at AFCON 2027 matters to Kenya. They are one of three co-hosts of the competition, which is due to be played in June and July next year, alongside Tanzania and Uganda. There's certainly time to prepare. The group stages of qualification for the tournament are just about to begin, and Kenya are taking part in them even though they've already qualified as co-hosts. Ironically, South Africa are the same group as them, alongside Eritrea and Guinea, and they kick off their six group matches against Eritrea in Nairobi on Saturday afternoon.

McCarthy arrived at Blackburn Rovers in 2006 with a wealth of experience under his belt. He moved to Europe in 1997 to join Ajax and was an immediate hit. Over the next nine years, he'd go on to win the Dutch Eredivisie and the Portuguese Primera Liga with Porto, and after returning to South Africa in 2011 following a brief spell with West Ham United, he won the Premier Soccer League with Orlando Pirates in 2012. HIs coaching career has seen him have spells in Scotland with Hibernian, and in South Africa with AmaZulu, before being appointed as a striker's coach at Old Trafford in 2022.

The Kenya national team, informally known as the Harambee Stars, will not be among the favourites to win AFCON 2027. They've only qualified for the finals twice since 1992 and were knocked out in the group stages both times that they did. In 2023, they and Zimbabwe were disqualified from entering because of a FIFA ban over governmental interference in the running of the game. They're currently 109th in FIFA's men's world rankings.

Given that arranging work permits is the responsibility of the Football Kenya Federation and reports of a "deepening crisis" with the country's club game, it's not difficult to see why this country of 50 million people has long been amongst Africa's biggest footballing under-achievers. Getting the manager and his staff the passes required to manage the team as he wishes to be would be a start, in terms of rectifying that.