In the Euphoria of Kenya’s strong performance while playing away to Nigeria, Nairobi senator Mike Mbuvi Sonko pledged to give Harambee Stars One Million shillings for each win in their remaining three matches of the world Cup qualifiers. This is a good gesture that will serve to motivate the players especially if other prominent personalities match Sonko’s support.

However Sonko also rewarded goal scorer Francis Kahata with 100,000 shillings in cash and pledged to continue rewarding all the goal scorers in their remaining group matches.

This is a lousy idea that will certainly lead to disunity in the team. Goals are not scored in a vacuum. A goal in football is usually due to the collective efforts of the team.

Take the goal Kahata scored. It happened because Oliech who was keeping the Nigerian defenders busy, squared to Gateri who was fouled. The resulting freekick was struck home by Kahata in sublime fashion. He deserves every bit of praise for what is possibly the best freekick this author has ever seen by a Kenyan. But several other players were involved in creating the freekick.

In the 79th minute, Oliech was at it again, sending a defence splitting pass to Kahata who had a one on one with the goalkeeper and almost scored. It is this kind of team-work that is needed to score goals. In some cases, a player does all the donkey work and passes the ball to an open team-mate who scores with a simple tap in. The papers will mention the scorer but the person who actually created the goal was the player who did all the donkey work.

If Sonko and others give special recognition only to the scorers then he will discourage team-work. Players often have only a small instant to make quick decisions. If the thought of receiving Ksh 100,000 from Sonko crosses his mind at that very moment, he may not pass the ball to a player who is in a better scoring position.

Players will try to score from impossible angles, via unnecessary long range shots and the net result will be several shots on goal with no goals scored.

Sonko probably does not understand how rewarding individual scorers can have a negative impact on teamwork but someone ought to tell him.

Secondly, rewarding scorers only focuses on offense and ignores defense which is just as critical. In the Nigeria game for example, the defense was heroic. Jamal Mohammed saved a goalbound shot with his thighs, David Owino chased Victor Moses all day and foiled his scoring efforts several times, Mulinge Munandi, Arnold Origi were  equally outstanding. Heck even Oliech and Kahata fell back occasionally.

Thirdly, the field captain is supposed to determine who takes freekicks on the field. he is supposed to select the person best qualified. On this day, Oliech was the captain and he selected Kahat. “Dennis (Oliech) also considered taking that kick, but then opted to leave it to me. That is when I stepped forward.” said Kahata in an interview. Oliech is known to be selfless and team oriented, If Sonko insists on rewarding scorers then a different captain might opt to take the freekick himself to angle for Sonko’s reward despite the fact there might be a better freekick taker available.

Sonko’s heart is in the right place but he should focus in rewarding the team instead of individual players. If he wants to reward individual players then it should be player who is voted man of the match.