TANZANIA Football Federation (TFF) said they will continue to assist in the nurturing of young talent from the grassroots level where real potential is found.
This was said by the federation’s second Vice-President Steven Mnguto who presided over the Magnet All Star football clinic which was organised by Magnet Youth Sports Organisation (MYSO) held in Dar es Salaam recently.
“We understand that the best way to uplift football standards in the country is to invest much in various grassroots programmes aimed at shaping young football talents who will later become reliable national team players,” he said.
He urged the organisers of the event to continue doing so while pledging that TFF will be available to give them full support when needed.
“They are simply helping us to create a competitive national football team in the future because after four-five years, these young players will be a reliable asset for different clubs,” said him.
He added that the federation has put in place friendly measures to monitor the progress of youth programmes in different schools across the nation as a step forward to identify and upgrade talented young players.
“We are also serious in promoting women football and this has enabled our women teams to do well in most of the competitions they are exposed to,” Mnguto said.
On his part, MYSO Chairman Tuntufye Mwambusi said the strong partnership they get from parents and guardians is helping a lot to mobilise the young players and let them play football.
“We have seen talent from different matches played by these young players and for us, we saw it important to start developing young players from the tender age which is the basic of youth development,” said him.
He continued that at MYSO, players are trained according to their age categories and that they first make a follow-up of children before allowing them to join their centre.
He then called for support from the concerned authorities towards different academies available in the country as a means to make them operate effectively.
A promising player, Lusajo Tuntufye, who admires Christian Ronaldo and Lionel Messi on the international scene, said he ventured in football after finding it fascinating.
“What I believe is that every person has ability to achieve big things only if they work hard,” he said.
