Will we see another Tanzanian in EPL?
We return to one of our favorite subjects: sports – generally defined as activities which involve physical exertion and skill, whereby individuals or teams compete against others, usually for entertainment or as a career.
Interaction determines how we relate to each other in society, and sports are one thing that, in ideal conditions, is meant to bring human beings closer together.
Increasingly, however – what with sports becoming another frontier where the relentless competitive streak in humans is displayed – we have ended up with sports becoming yet another arena for bloodbaths.
On Sunday, the 40th London Marathon in the annual series this year saw to more than 45,000 runners taking part in the Men’s and Women’s races, as well as the Wheelchairs’ race for both men and women.
It seems that not many of us in Tanzania were aware of this global event, in which runners from Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda in the East African region participated.
We were oblivious to the London Marathon and the 1st KipKeino Classic Athletics event because of two reasons. First: ever since Filbert Bayi (1953—) and Gidamis Shahanga (1957—), thrilled the world during the late 1960s to early 1990s, we have lost our athletics mojo.
Second, we seem to have turned all our energy and other ‘resources’ to Association (soccer) Football, the world’s most popular spectator sport.
Indeed, there is nothing wrong with being passionate about soccer.
But, although Brazilians are fully steeped in soccer, this has not stopped them from producing world-beating sportsmen and women like the athletes Joaquim Carvalho Cruz (1963—) and Robson Caetno da Silva (1964—).
Back to Tanzania…
Admittedly, it is debatable whether or not our footballing fortunes have improved in recent years. After all, the proverbial jewel of our footballing crown, Mbwana Ally Samatta (1992—), has gone from making us the only East African country to load the social media handles of an English Premier League Club (EPL) to joining the Turkish Prima Liga club, ‘Fenerbahçe Spor Kulübü (Sports Club)!
When Mbwana Samatta was roped in by EPL’s Aston Villa, I do not think there was a prouder nation than Tanzania in the world of soccer. Samatta was the first bona fide Tanzanian to play in the EPL, renowned for its great marketing promotional skills. Many top players want to play in the EPL at some point in their footballing career.
Samatta confesses he had always watched John George Terry (1980—) play for Aston Villa, Chelsea and the England national team. But, he never dreamed he’d one day be photographed with Terry – as he recently did – with him in Aston Villa colours. He did so as a Villa player, with Terry as assistant Villa coach.
However, the Villa-cum-EPL dream just as soon ended when expectations were still sky-high.
Speculation is rife on why the Sammatta EPL dream was shattered to smithereens
I hazard a theory here – which is the centrepiece of this piece – no pun intended here!
Boisterous, brash Tanzanian football fans took ‘fan-hood’ to a whole new level, making Samatta’s footballing and daily life a nightmare. He was constantly under scrutiny from his team-mates, his coaches and other stakeholders compared to other players and his peers.
In our village-level mentality, we thought buying fake Aston Villa club jerseys from machingas in Tanzania meant that we had signed rights to be coaches, team managers, soccer strategists, etc., for Aston Villa F.C.
From the comfort of our kibanda umiza, we spewed out epithets at Villa FC Captain Jack Peter Grealish (1995—) who on Sunday night scored a double as Villa whupped EPL defending champions Liverpool 7-2!
The reality on the ground now is that no EPL club will want to sign a Tanzanian soccer player for a long, long time to come. That is if the club wants to avoid melodramatics which distract the player and his team-mates, as well as match officials and the club involved.
