Kagere first foreigner to arrive as Simba SC begin preparation

Rwandan international Meddie Kagere became the first foreign player to arrive in the Simba SC camp as they are set to resume training ahead of the resumption of the Mainland Premier League.

The Tanzanian top-flight is set to resume from June 1 after they got the green light from President John Pombe Magufuli last week.

Simba, who are chasing for a third straight title, were among the teams whose foreign players had travelled to their native countries when the league was halted in mid-March owing to the coronavirus pandemic.

However, the club’s top scorer Kagere landed in Dar es Salaam on Tuesday from Kigali, Rwanda, and was driven straight to the team’s residential camp where the players are to undergo mandatory tests to check their Covid-19 status.

Simba CEO Senso Mazingiza welcomed the arrival of the striker and promised that the other foreign players – Francis Kahata (Kenya), Sharraf Shiboub (Sudan), and Clatous Chama (Zambia) – will join before the end of this week.

“We have made all the plans to have the foreign players before we resume the league and all of them are making their way to Dar es Salaam,” Mazingiza told reporters on Tuesday.

“We have also met with the technical bench and our plan is to have the team start group training on Wednesday and we are hopeful that all the health measures from the government will be in place as we start of the training.”

Mazingiza further said they are ready to resume action as their main target is to be crowned the champions at the end of the season.

“The good news we have is that our players have been training while the lockdown was in place and so we don’t have to struggle to have them regain their fitness, they have shown they are ready and as a club, we are ready to kick-off the remaining matches,” Mazingiza continued.

The Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) and the Ministry of Sports settled for two locations – Mwanza and Dar es Salaam – to host the remaining rounds of matches.

The venues in Dar es Saalam include Azam Complex, Uhuru Stadium and the National Stadium while in Mwanza, matches will be staged at CCM Kirumba Stadium and Nyamagana Stadium.