Serengeti Boys to camp in Qatar ahead of Afcon

Dar es Salaam. Serengeti Boys will camp in Doha, Qatar, ahead of the U-17 Africa Youth Championship (Afcon), which is scheduled to be held in the country from April 14 to 28, this year.

Few weeks ago, Serengeti Boys featured in the Uefa-Caf special tournament (Uefa Assist) and played three matches. They lost 1-0 to Guinea before winning 3-2 against Australia and later losing 5-0 to the host, Turkey. According to the source within the Tanzania Football Federation (TFF), the Serengeti Boys squad is expected to leave the country on March 20. While in Qatar, the team is scheduled to play a series of friendly matches, one against the host country and others against the teams that will travel to Doha.

Currently, the Serengeti Boys are fine-tuning at the Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete Park ground in Dar es Salaam under the tutelage of Coach Oscar Mirambo.

Serengeti Boys are in Group A in the U-17 Afcon alongside Nigeria’s Golden Eaglets, as well as teams from Angola and Uganda. The Tanzanian Boys will launch their Afcon campaign against Golden Eaglets at the National Stadium on April 14. They will also face Angola on April 17 before taking on Uganda in what will be their final group stage match. Group B comprises Guinea, Cameroon, Morocco and Senegal. When contacted, Mirambo, the coach, said there is a plan for the team to travel to Qatar for the final camp.

“We have been told so and we are in preparations, everything about the trip and camp will be revealed by our leaders,” said Mirambo in a phone interview.

He said that all players are doing fine ahead of the competition and they have started to rectify all the mistakes that the players made during the Uefa-Assist tournament.

“We continue to sharpen our team players’ skills as we know our group is very tough,” said Mirambo.

Expectations are high in the country that the Serengeti Boys will make history in the tournament and later compete in the U-17 Fifa World Cup to be held in Peru in October, this year.