A Soccer-Mad Nation Excited To Meet EvertonWhat this week taught us about Everton's new main partnership.“What SportPesa have told us is that Tanzania is absolutely fanatical about football and, really, it was their choice to come here to launch the partnership with a full house in a nation that’s crazy about the English Premier League."
Just 48 hours in Tanzania was enough to confirm that SportPesa’s words to Everton Chief Executive Robert Elstone were no exaggeration.
This is indeed a nation obsessed with football. And one that is evidently wholly excited to welcome their first ever Premier League visitors when Ronald Koeman takes his side to the 60,000-seater national stadium in the country’s largest city, Dar es Salaam, on 13 July.
As one official explained to me, for almost all Tanzanians the number one passion is football. Unlike in the UK where large crowds gather in theatres, cinemas and at concerts, the only social events for many in Tanzania are determined by fixture lists.
This thirst for the game is never more in evidence than when the country's top sides meet. Take a look on YouTube and it will evoke memories of the World Cup in South Africa in 2010; vibrant colour, vibrant noise, more than the odd vuvuzela.
The big rivals domestically are Simba and Yanga. Both will take part in the SportPesa Super Cup, the eight-team tournament that will decide Everton’s opponents on 13 July. There were stories, too, of supporters attending matches of their rivals to cheer on the opposition and simply boost numbers in the away end.
Turning that passion into an improved football infrastructure - and an improved league - is one of SportPesa’s key goals, and an area where they will look to Everton for support over the next five years of the shirt sponsorship deal announced last month, the most lucrative in the Club’s history.
Tanzania currently lie 122nd in the FIFA rankings. Their highest ever position, achieved in 1995, was 75th. Their lowest, in 2004, was 168th.
Enhancing the grassroots game, especially in youth football, is SportPesa’s commitment to a country where they are rapidly expanding, having already prospered with a similar community-focused venture in Kenya.
Through coaching camps, knowledge sharing and training the coaches themselves, it is hoped the gaming giant’s association with Everton can provide a shot in the arm that will contribute towards raising standards.
Inspiring youngsters is key, too, and the rationale behind taking Leon Osman, an Academy graduate who produced more than 400 appearances for the Toffees and went on to represent his country, as part of the Blues delegation that this week travelled to East Africa.
“It is what we’re looking for in Tanzania - we need the grassroots to be developed and it will depend on what Everton and SportPesa, and other big teams, can provide us,” says Eduard Tamayo, executive coach at Dar Academy Development of Youth. “The more we get into the grassroots, the more improvement we will get, so we hope that you guys will play a big part in that, provide some ideas and perhaps some support from the technical teams in terms of sending over coaches who can support us over here in Tanzania.
“The basic skill is there in the players but I think there is more need of development of youth academies. There is still a lot of stuff that needs to be done. But we have been working with our team for the last three years and we see the improvement in them.”
Having met the players of four different local youth clubs at the Tanzanian national stadium that will play host to July’s friendly, Osman got a taste of the very kind of event SportPesa and Everton plan to make commonplace.
In the teenagers who scrapped and tussled for even a fleeting moment to show off their skills to their special guest, who gathered for selfies and autographs and who hung on the former midfielder’s every word of advice, there was tangible evidence that a Premier League - an Everton - presence in the nation can have a telling impact.
“It was great to meet the young players here today and I was impressed with what I saw,” reflected Osman. “The fact is only a slim percentage will even have a chance to make the top flight but it may just make a difference to that one kid.
Osman470
“A big part of what Everton and SportPesa will be trying to do in East Africa is to help with the development of the game, particularly at grassroots level, and hopefully we’ll see a really positive impact of that in the future.”
Dar es Salaam itself is busy. Nowhere more so than on the potholed roads, the arteries that criss-cross the city, carrying people, goods and, invariably, chatter about football. Along the pavements walk locals draped in football shirts of clubs from all corners of the country and the globe, a colourful swathe that so often moves faster than the traffic alongside.
It is a city seemingly in constant gridlock, yet everywhere patience is on display. There is none of the incessant horn blowing or erratic undertaking so often witnessed in densely populated lands. As in all facets of life, the people radiate calm. Hakuna Matata, as they say.
It is also a place of great beauty, with seemingly endless miles of white sand and crystal clear, warm waters that provide peaceful havens contrary to the bustling streets and a grand natural spa that those Evertonians venturing the 7200-miles to East Africa will surely relish in six weeks’ time.
They will certainly be extended a warm welcome, too. It’s customary. But it’s the excitement around 13 July that truly ensures it. This is a nation where all football is popular, yet the Premier League reins supreme.
That said, the game is really just a beginning. The hope is to one day look back and say the first ever visit of a top-flight English club was the trigger for Tanzanian football to reach a whole new level.
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