Mbwana Samatta
‘I AM DOING SOMETHING NO-ONE IN TANZANIA HAS… and I don’t want to stop here’
Taifa Stars goal-machine and captain Mbwana Samatta has set a new standard for Tanzanian football. Here, he talks exclusively to Twiga about how his taste of the English Premiership has left him hungry for more and how he hopes to inspire more homegrown players to follow him to the top tier of the game.
MDI / Shutterstock
W
hen he was a young boy growing up in Mbagala, then one of Dar es Salaam’s poorest and most troubled neighbourhoods, Mbwana Samatta was like any other football-loving kid. As soon as the school day was over, he, his brothers and their friends would take to the streets and play until it grew dark. “It was a passion,” he says. “It was the only thing we could do as children to be happy.” The youngsters all shared the same dream: to one day play in the English Premiership, the most watched sports league on earth. However, unlike his friends, his family and, indeed, every other Tanzanian footballer in history, Samatta achieved that dream. In January 2020, aged 27, he signed for Premiership club Aston Villa in a four-and-a-half-year deal worth £8.5m (US$ 11.4m). Mbwana is aware that every young Tanzanian would give anything to swap places with him and while he feels the pressure of a nation’s expectations, he is also driven to set an inspirational
airtanzania.co.tz
/ 5
