Maximo to attend Tanzania Football Summit in Zanzibar

Former Tanzania national football team (Taifa Stars) head coach Marcio Maximo. PHOTO | COURTESY

What you need to know:

  • Tanzania’s Football Summit is scheduled to take place on June 25-26 at the Golden Tulip Zanzibar Airport Hotel in Zanzibar

Dar es Salaam. Former Tanzania national football team (Taifa Stars) head coach Marcio Maximo is expected to be among dignitaries who will attend Tanzania’s second Football Summit scheduled to take place on June 25-26 at the Golden Tulip Zanzibar Airport Hotel in Zanzibar.

Maximo, who will be a special guest of the event, will join other notable football stakeholders and specialists who will address the occasion. Others are former Chelsea head coach Arvant Grant, Aydogan Murat of Bregel Sport-Genk of Belgium, Yair Galily from Israel and Anis Chaieb from the United Arab Emirates. The summit will have six topics to be discussed by famous football professionals in the world.

Maximo is well remembered in Tanzania after having coached Taifa Stars from June 29, 2006 to 2009 and made history for enabling the country to qualify for African Nations Championship (CHAN) finals in Ivory Coast in 2009 after eliminating Sudan on 5-2 goal aggregates.

His success prompted the the Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) to extend his contract for one year until July 2010 before being replaced by Danish coach Jan Borge Poulsen.

The Brazilian tactician did a commendable job while in Tanzania as he highly promoted the country internationally. Maximo also joined Young Africans (Yanga) in 2014 as a coach.

Speaking with The Citizen from Brazil, Maximo said he will be happy to comeback to Tanzania for the third time and meet football stakeholders once again and share his knowledge for football development in the country.

“I will be very happy to rejoin my good friends of Tanzania. It is eight years now since I left the country for Prudentopolis of Brazil before I joined Costa Rica EC in 2017 and later Guyana’s national football team from 2019 to 2021.

“It is the opportunity for me to share my ideas and knowledge for football development in Tanzania,” said Maximo. Speaking yesterday, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Afrisoccer, Peter Simon, said the preparations of the summit are going on smoothly and called on sponsors to join hands.

“We expect to have fruitful occasion and famous speakers in Zanzibar, where they will address the gathering, we call upon sponsors to join hands on the issue,” said Simon. This is the second time for the Tanzania Football Summit to be staged in the country. The inaugural event was held in Mainland Tanzania, where former Senegalese player Khalilou Fadiga, who also played for Italian giants Inter Milan and English side, Bolton Wanderers, also attended it.