AfricaPress-Tanzania: TAIFA Stars Head Coach Etienne Ndayiragije said he has a big task to groom new generation of players, to replace some of the senior players, who are nearing retirement.
He made the revelation in Dar es Salaam yesterday and insisted that the current generation of the national team has an obligation to guide the team to the top level before letting some of the players retire from serving the senior side.
“At the moment, our role is to make sure that as we prepare for other senior players in the team to hang up their boots, we should also be watchful by identifying potential replacement for them. “There are many talented players out there who are very promising for the future such that they just need to be brushed further for them to be reliable ingredient,” said the Burundian trainer.
He then gave kudos to the government for approving to resume sport activities, saying when the leagues are in progress; It becomes easy for them to monitor players.
“It is good to hear that the games are returning back and there is always a room for new talents to join the senior team but, our job is to also keenly look into the junior teams on how players are progressing,” said he.
He further pointed out that players develop well when they are supervised by the coaches, saying the individual training they were undertaking before regrouping could not really make them competitive as it is required.
“I used to watch some of the solo training sessions posted by some players and most of them were fond of exercising on sand at beaches, which is not that good since they can easily be injured,” he said.
Ndayiragije, who succeeded Nigerian Emmanuel Amunike at the helm of Taifa Stars last year, was due to guide Stars to Cameroon for the finals of 2020 African Nations Championship (CHAN), before they were indefinitely suspended due to Covid-19 pandemic.
In the competition, Tanzania is packed in group D together with Zambia, Guinea and Namibia of which many pundits described as a fair category for the country’s representatives to reach deeper into the contest.
