Clifton Miheso: "Education is important – we don’t have many years as footballers"

Nearing the twilight of his career, Kenyan international Clifton Miheso realised he needed a plan for post-retirement. With the help of the Kenya Footballers Welfare Association (KEFWA), the AFC Leopards midfielder enrolled to study at Zetech University and graduated this year.

By Clifton Miheso

It was during the time of Covid-19. It was tough for everyone, including footballers. I met Dan Makori Chacha, who works as an education officer for KEFWA. He told me they had a programme that sponsored footballers who wanted to study.

I had this passion to do something off the pitch, something that I can do after football. I was looking for a fallback plan. I had thought about studying before, but because it was so expensive, I was still trying to save money. When Dan told me about the sponsored programme, I did not believe him at first. I thought, how can someone pay for your school fees? University is very expensive.

I wanted to do something in sport. Zetech University did not offer any sports programmes, so I registered for international relations and diplomacy. I had an interest in politics and the history of the world and wanted to learn how things work in an international system. I started in September 2020 and graduated in January this year.

It was blended learning: we had physical, as well as online classes. It was a bit challenging as sometimes we had classes when we were supposed to be training. And sometimes we had games when I was supposed to have exams.

I had to talk to my team. I was playing at Police FC at the time. I approached the management and asked for permission to be given time off when I was writing exams. They allowed me to do the exams and then go back to training. My lecturers also supported me and helped me catch up the work that I had missed. We used to train in the morning from 6am to 8am. Then from 8am, I would go to school and at least catch up with the other students if I had missed classes.

The lecturers and my classmates were happy to have an international footballer studying with them. One lecturer in particular was a very keen football fan and always wanted to talk football. Sadly, I never got better grades as a result – in fact, I had to work very hard to get good grades!

My initial plan was to use my degree to help Kenyan sport. We've had so many challenges with football in Kenya, especially in management and administration. It seems that whenever we take one step forward, we follow that up with two steps back.

I thought that if I combined my experience on the pitch with my education, I could help run things the way they are supposed to be run. A lot of the people involved in the administration have not actually played the game.

I am interested in doing a master’s degree in sport, but because I still have so many footballing commitments, I am looking to do that through an international university that offers online classes. I think if I have a master’s degree in sports, I will be able to help Kenyan sport develop.

I have played football for 13 years in different countries – Finland, Portugal, Zambia, South Africa – and I’ve seen how things are handled there and how professional teams are being run. With that knowledge, and with the addition of education, I can do some good work here.

It is important for players to be educated because we don’t have many years as footballers. That is particularly important for footballers in African countries where the money is not as good as it is in Europe, for instance. You will not be able to secure your future.