12 minute read
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.
When 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 example and, ultimately, to pave the way for more homegrown players to follow in his path.
KucherAV / Shutterstock.com
“The EPL is every Tanzanian’s kid dream,” he tells me. “It has been mine since I can remember. There is pressure, but I know how to release it. I am aware that I am doing something no-one in Tanzania has and I don’t want to stop there. I want to help as many children in this country do what I have done or do better.”
Helping the next generation
Samatta runs the Sama-Kiba Foundation alongside his friend and music star Ali Kiba, which raises money to help buy books and desks for schools in Tanzania. Once his playing career is over, he also intends to focus on helping the next generation of Tanzanian footballing talent get on the radar of the biggest international clubs. He says: “I want to build a bridge for the Tanzanian kids to move into professional football. I think I can help so many of them make the move to Europe.”
Of course, the Tanzanian national team captain is still young – he has just turned 28 – and feels he has much more to prove on the pitch. However, keeping the EFL dream alive has not been easy. Despite making an instant impact at Villa – scoring on his Premiership debut, another Tanzanian record – Samatta struggled to build on that beginning and after 14 first team appearances, the club decided the striker was not part of its plans for the 2020/21 season and allowed him to go on loan to Turkish club Fenerbahçe.
It’s clear that Samatta – a softly spoken, thoughtful presence throughout our interview over the phone from Istanbul, where Fenerbahçe are based – was hit hard by Villa’s decision. Fenerbahçe are a strong team – they have made the Champions League quarter-final stages and the Uefa Cup semis in the past decade – but the disappointment at having to move is palpable as he discusses it, but then so is a steely determination and self-belief that the Premiership has not seen the last of him.
“I wish I could have stayed at Villa for longer and proved myself. Now I know what it takes to be there. The team is doing very well [at the time of our conversation, Villa were in the top five of the Premiership, having recently hammered last year’s champions, Liverpool, 7-2] and I believe if I was still there I could do better. But I always stay positive and I know I will go back to Villa or another Premiership side because I know I have the quality to do it.”
That quality has been immediately apparent at Fenerbahçe, where Samatta has already netted twice in his first few starts. The Turkish team is renowned for its fervent supporters, but Samatta is yet to get the famous fireworks and flares treatment as his goals go in as home games at the Şükrü Saracoğlu Sçadium this season have so far been crowd-free due to Covid. “Fenerbahçe is a big team,” he says. “So many great players have played for them. The Turkish league is strong. I am happy to be here and the fans are great. It’s going to be fantastic when they let them in. I’m enjoying the weather and the atmosphere.”
Always working hard
The discipline and work ethic that has seen him move beyond the disappointment at Villa has been evident throughout his career. Samatta’s achievements cannot be overstated. In a decade he has gone from the lowest tier of Tanzanian league football to the pinnacle of the global professional game. He has talent to burn – speed, a neat touch and an unerring eye for goal – but he has had to work harder than most to make it. Tanzania does not, yet, have much of a global profile in football so building his profile has taken time.
Samatta comes from a footballing family. His father played in his day and his five older brothers – Samatta is the youngest of seven siblings – were also keen players. “It’s a family thing. All my siblings played football. I am the one who scored big,” he says.
Getting started
Football at the start did not pay big. In fact, second division Mbagala Market, the first club to sign the then 15-year-old Samatta, didn’t pay him at all. His father had given up his football dream to support his family as a policeman and Samatta felt he would have to make a similar move into the military if he was to earn a living.
It was clear to anyone watching him play that Samatta was something special, but Jamali Kisongo – Mbagala Market’s manager at the time and still a key figure in scouting talent in the Tanzanian game – was the first to give him a proper platform for that talent. Soon the club had an affluent new owner and were renamed African Lyon. The new injection of money meant Samatta was not only now getting a wage, but he was also playing at a higher level with the team gaining promotion to the first division.
As a boy, the speedy Samatta fancied himself as a winger – similar to the wide role his “idol” Cristiano Ronaldo played at Manchester United at the time – but it soon became apparent he had an instinct for goal. His strike rate at African Lyon led to him being signed by Tanzanian Premier League Simba SC – the team he had supported since a boy – where Samatta, still just 17, continued to impress. Among his 13 goals in his 25 appearances for ‘The Kings’ was one in an African Champions League tie which even impressed his opponents, Congolese team TP Mazembe, who swiftly signed him.
Villa Park, English Premier League Club Aston Villa’s home ground
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Awards
This was a big step up. TP Mazembe are one of Africa’s most successful clubs with achievements including making the final of the Fifa Club World Cup in 2010 – the year before they signed Samatta. The Dar teenager relocated to Lubumbashi and – as was to become a pattern in his footballing career – made an instant impact, scoring in his first game and going on to net 60 goals in just 103 appearances for the club. With Samatta, Mazembe won four successive domestic titles and lifted the 2015 Africa Champions League with the striker scoring from the penalty spot in each leg of the final and finishing as top scorer for the tournament. That year Samatta was also named Africanbased Player of the Year.
“That meant a lot,” he says. “A Tanzanian or an East African had never won it before. Imagine that. It’s not easy for any Tanzanian so it was important and it inspired a lot of young, talented players here to look and say to themselves: ‘If he did it, we can do it.’”
Samatta is not only a prolific scorer at every level he’s played at, he has also proved himself a player for the big occasions, getting goals at crucial times. He was entrusted as the Mazembe penalty taker and held his nerve to score from the spot in each leg of the African Champions League final. “To be honest, I get more confidence when I play against a big team or it’s a big name,” he says. I don’t know why. It just comes like that. Every big game I feel more confident.”
Tanzanians love football and Samatta is an inspiration
The goals and garlands of his five years with Mazembe caught the attention of Belgian side KRC Genk, who signed him in 2016. The physicality and aggression of the Belgian Pro League – the country’s top tier of football – was a shock at first, but the diligent Samatta worked hard to adapt and he soon became integral to the team. He scored 40 goals during his time at Genk at a rate of close to one every other game and in 2019 he helped the team qualify for the Uefa Europa League and win the Belgian Jupiter League. His outstanding individual efforts that season won him the Ebony Shoe – given to the best African or African origin player with past winners including Romalu Lukaku and Vincent Kompany – and attracted Aston Villa to bid for his services.
Goal machine
At every level and whether for club or country, Samatta has scored goals. I ask him what he thinks was the best goal he ever scored. The question leaves him lost in thought for over a minute. To be fair to him, he does have plenty to choose from – 139 in top-flight football at the last count. In the end he opts for a magnificent solo effort while playing for Tanzania against Algeria in 2015.
“We were 2-1 down at the time,” he says. “I picked up the ball on the halfway line and dribbled past three players to score the equaliser. Algeria were tough opponents and I was not a big name at the time so it was an important goal.
“I have scored many goals that I am proud of. It always feels great to score, but I have other sides to my game like good touch control and good speed on the ball. I try to enjoy myself on the pitch and have fun.”
The goal against Algeria is one of 20 he has scored for his country. He has proved pivotal to an ascendant period for the Taifa Stars, captaining the team and leading them last year to the Africa Cup of Nations – marking the first time Tanzania had qualified for the biannual event in 39 years. “It was a proud moment. It will be in the history books forever,” says Samatta.
National team improving
Tanzania did not make it past the group stage, but Samatta, of course, got a goal and he says the team’s presence at the event was evidence of a resurgence in Tanzanian football. However, fans should not expect miracles. He says: “We are heading in the right direction but at a slow pace. The future is always bright, but I can see some other countries passing us. I believe we could be in a better place, but sometimes these things take time to be where you want to be. We have people taking us there and you have to believe in them. We have to be patient.”
Samatta knows about playing the long game. Success has come to him in increments and each time he has pushed on to a higher level, finessing his game, not allowing himself to become upset by the lows or over-excited by the highs. He has been, quite literally, focused on his goals.
Samatta has 56 caps for his country
Image: Hassan Mambosasa | Wikimedia Commons | CC-BY-SA-4.0
“I believe in myself,” he says. “If I go goalless for a while, I train hard, concentrate and hope it will come soon. I have got where I am through working hard and focusing on big goals. I still think I can do better.”
His rise through the footballing ranks took him away from Tanzania at an early age – he was still a teen when he signed for Mazembe. Now married and with two children, Samatta admits to periods of homesickness but his work ethic extends to making the effort to adapt to his new home. Samatta signals his readiness to begin our conversation with the phrase “I’m all ears”, a peculiarly English idiom I assume he has picked up during his time at Villa.
“My English is not so good so I am always trying to learn. When I can catch an expression. It’s important to learn. I try my best.
“When I first left Tanzania, I was missing my family, my friends, my language and the food, but now I think I am getting used to it.
“I have been away a long time now. When I go home to play with the national team it is nice to speak my language. Home is home, you can’t find it anywhere else.”
Home is also that place where it all began, chasing his dream on the streets of Mbagala. The dream is still alive.
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‘THE BEST PLAYER I’VE EVER COME UP AGAINST’
Samatta says: “I have played against so many good players, but if I think of the real killers, I would have to include [Brazilian-Portuguese footballer, now playing for FC Porto] Pepe. He’s a defender and I am a striker so we came together a lot when he was with [Turkish club] Beşiktaş and I was with Genk. It was very difficult to attack against him. He’s tough and he’s clever.”
Pepe
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