Kenya Women's Under-20 national team captain Jane Hato has her sights firmly trained on featuring for the Barcelona Women's Football Club shortly.
In an interview on Thursday, Hato revealed she has been nursing her dream over the years and is willing to hammer away tirelessly to make it a reality.
The gifted attacking midfielder, who currently features for Mathare United Women is faithfully following in the footsteps of her mother Anne 'Aunty' Aluoch.
Aluoch, a former Kenyan international, comprised the technical bench that steered the nation to its first-ever 2024 Fifa U17 World Cup over the weekend while serving as head coach Mildred Cheche's deputy.
Incidentally, Aluoch is Hato's coach at FKF Women's Division One League side Mathare United.
Hato joined the Slum Girls hoping to help them reclaim their top-flight status following their relegation in 2021.
However, Hato will have to wait a little bit longer to accomplish her mission after they wrapped up third in the just-concluded season.
Before joining Mathare, Hato featured for Kenya Women's Premier League side, Madira Soccer Assassins where she served as captain.
She had the armband when Madira earned a promotion to the top-tier league. Hato said she found herself in a dilemma while trying to decide whether to dump Madira for Mathare.
“Leaving Madira was a tough decision to make. However, I felt I owed Mathare a lot and had an unaccomplished mission with the side which was to propel it back to the KWPL,” Hato remarked.
“In any case, I had already fulfilled what I intended for Assassins. I left the club a season after we had gained promotion to the top-tier competition,” she stated.
"By the time I was finishing Form Four, my school team was already promoted to the premier league and I played for them. Our name was Soccer Assassins. They are still in the Premier League."
Hato received a letter to join Madira in 2019 after completing her Kenya Certificate of Primary Education.
"I attended three different primary schools, including Precious Stars (2010 -2014), M.M Chandaria (2015 -2017) and Umoja One Primary (2017 -2019)," she said.
Her nascent football skills began surfacing when she was still in primary school and it didn't come as a surprise when she made the Nairobi-select team for the inter-county school games.
In 2019, I was selected to represent Nairobi in the national finals which were held in Nakuru. The trip to the Norway Cup collided with the date to the nationals so I had to skip the school competition.
"So good was she that when she went for trials at Madira Girls in Vihiga County, her exceptional exploits impressed the games teachers led by Nickson Muleri who immediately enlisted her for a sports scholarship in the school.
She cemented her place in the starting lineup of the school team a few months after joining Form One, steadily polishing her act under head coach Alexander Alumira who won three consecutive Kenya Women's Premier League titles with Vihiga Queens.
Her interest in football began in 2012 when she joined Aunty Babes, a club founded by her mother in the sprawling Babadogo shanties in Nairobi. "I honed my basic skills in football at Aunty Babes where my mother was the coach.
That's where I learned all my basic skills," Hato stated. "From there, I joined the Mysa Under-16 girls' team in 2017 until 2019 and I captained the side at the annual Norway Cup in Oslo, where we reached the semifinals and emerged fourth overall," she added.
Buoyed by her speedy rise to the international limelight, Hato continued to toil even harder and it wasn't long before she secured a place in the national team.
" I was just 13 when I earned a call-up to the Kenya U17 women's team for the Cecafa tournament in Uganda, where we finished third overall," she said.
At the Slum Girls, Hato is back to her roots having honed her skills at the Mathare Youth Sports Association (MYSA), where she matured through various age categories on her way to the senior stage.
"Joining Mathare was the proudest moment of my life. I was officially unveiled as the new addition to the club with my friend, coach, and mom by my side," she said.
Skippering the Rising Starlets during the 2024 FifaU20 Women's World Cup qualifiers in November last year was the highlight of her stellar career.
The national women's U-20 team, however, bowed out of contention after losing on a 6-2 aggregate against Indomitable Lionesses of Cameroon.
Hato said she was extremely thrilled to play with her mother for the first time in one team.
"My best memory in football is when I played with my mother in the same team. She played position six and I played in position eight. We had to communicate and work closely together. For me, that was very special having my mother as my teammate," Hato said.
"All this happened when we featured for Mathare United Women in a friendly match against Wadadia at the MYSA Komarock grounds in 2019. We won 2-1," she added.
But her career has not been devoid of low moments and she experienced her worst feeling in 2021 when the coaches overlooked her in an international encounter against Uganda.
Hato was excited when head coach Charles Okere handed her a maiden call-up to the national women's Under-20 team. However, her joy went up in flames when she was dropped from the starting lineup at the eleventh hour.
"My worst moment in football came in 2021 while featuring for the U20 national team in a home match against Uganda. On departure to the stadium, they named the squad and I was a substitute and that felt nice. At least I could influence the match in one way or another, I thought..."
"Once we arrived at the stadium and gained access to the changing room, I was shocked when I was told not to change into the team's official uniform for the day. So my friend and I had to return the uniforms and went on to watch the match from the terraces. I felt so bad and cried throughout the match.
"I thought I deserved to be at the very least on the bench. I had worked extremely hard in training. But now I think God was preparing me for more," she added.
Hato is urging budding footballers to remain passionate and focused in their pursuit if they intend to scale her heights. "First, love what you do and believe in yourself. Trust in God and the rest will follow," Hato quipped.
"They should also remember that they should not use challenges as an excuse for not reaching their goals. Rather, they should treat challenges as a motivation for them to strive even harder," she added.
Hato draws immense inspiration from Nigerian football luminary Asisat Lamina Oshoala who plays as a striker for National Women's Soccer League club Bay FC and the Nigeria women's national team.
She previously plied trade for Arsenal, Liverpool, Chinese club Dalian, and Nigerian clubs Rivers Angels and FC Robo.
"Oshoala is one of the most decorated African female footballers of all time. She scooped the African Women's Footballer of the Year a record six times," Hato reflected.
She bagged the 2015 FA Women's Cup with Arsenal, two league championships and a cup title with Dalian. She also won the 2019–20 Copa de la Reina and 2019/20 Supercopa de España Femenina with Barcelona.
"In 2019, she made history as the first African player to score a goal in a Uefa Women's Champions League final and on May 16, 2021, became the first African woman to win the Uefa Champions League after Barcelona defeated Chelsea 4–0 in the final," Hato added.
Hato's life is not all about football though and like any other athlete, Hato sets some time aside to engage in her hobbies.
"I love watching documentaries especially those featuring the African continent. Apart from that, I enjoy spending time and having fun with either my friends or family at the malls and amusement parks," Hato said.
MYSA founder Bob Munro hailed Hato for her success. "It's great to hear that MYSA is also benefiting the next generation. That’s true for many other families.
For example, Ann Aluoch’s daughter now plays for the Harambee Starlets which her mother captained at the 2016 Women’s Afcon," Munro stated.