Lornah Faith: This is what the Fifa award really means to me

Lornah Faith is among the two players who have made the country proud at the ongoing 2024 Fifa U17 Women's World Cup in the Dominican Republic.

Faith scored the second goal that propelled Kenya to a 2-1 victory against Mexico in their final Group C match of the tournament this week.

The other goal was notched by promising striker Valarie Wasike who also stood out for Kenya in the tournament.

Apart from finding the back of the net against Mexico, Faith was voted the Player of the Match.

The Butere Girls High School striker says the award means a lot to her and that it has now inspired her to work hard to realise her dream in football.

She is motivated to perform better in the sport so she can win other bigger and better accolades.

"This plaque will be such a sweet memorabilia. I'm going to put it in our house, view it everyday to remind me of the exploits I had in Dominican Republic.

"This award will always act as a reminder that I should not lose hope in life, whatever the circumstance. It will be a reminder that I should always give my best in whatever service I'm engaged in," she said.

While reflecting on their crunch tie with Mexico, Faith says she was psyched up ahead of the match, that she was out to make her country proud.

"And I'm happy that I did it, I gave Kenya my best and the result speaks for itself, and the fact that I delivered makes me very proud of myself as a striker," she said.

"This tournament was such a good exposure for us, it was a nice platform to help us showcase and harness our talents, we got lots of experience here and during our pre-training camp in Spain," she said.

Faith thanked all the Kenyan fans who followed and cheered them in the journey, all the way from the qualification process up to the World Cup matches.

"Their support was great. We will forever be indebted to them, kindly never lose the cheerful spirit within you," she said.

In her take home lessons from the tournament, Faith is urging her team mates to keep grinding hard so that their game remains at par with the standards they encountered at the World Cup.

"Don't rest on your laurels, work hard to get even better clubs, let's set wild goals that will scare us, let's transport our talents to Europe and across the world in pursuit of our success.

"And if we become successful, let's help others struggling in the game so they come out of their rut," she said.