Frenchman Michel takes over as new Kenya coach

Frenchman Henri Michel was on Tuesday named the new national coach of Kenya to succeed Francis Kimanzi, who was fired in June after a string of poor results in the African Cup of Nations and World Cup competitions. The 65-year-old Michel, who has previously coached the national teams of Cameroon, Tunisia, Morocco, Ivory Coast and Equatorial Guinea, beat three other candidates, including countryman and former French coach Raymond Domenech and Belgian Adel Amrouche for the post. His immediate task is to revive the flagging fortunes of the Kenya national team which has been knocked out of the race for the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations, and is sitting precariously in the qualifying rounds of the 2014 World Cup finals in Brazil. Michel is well aware of the tough challenges of turning around the team which has only collected a single point from their two opening matches. “I know people will be looking at me to bring results. The task will be very difficult because we did not start very well in the competition,” said Michel.