Tanzania assistant minister for Foreign Affairs Ndamas Ndumbaro has explained how the country can benefit from Mbwana Samatta's popularity.
Ndumbaro was speaking during the Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) end of year meeting and urged the leaders in charge of sports departments to help the country benefit from the popularity of the game and their own stars.
“The level that [Mbwana] Samatta has reached in football can easily be tapped and used to improve our tourism, help our Kiswahili language grow and so the leaders should be careful on how they handle the dockets of sports in Tanzania,” Ndumbaro told Mwanaspoti.
“In Europe, for your information, footballers are more popular than political leaders.
“It is easy to find a person naming every player for Manchester United or Real Madrid and this simply indicates the game is very popular and we must reap from it.
“Football is the most loved game worldwide and we have to make sure we get maximum advantage from its popularity.”
Ndumbaro added Samatta's level can be compared with the world's best and challenged TFF to ensure they produce players of his calibre.
“We need to help nurture more players like him [Samatta] and through them, we can see Kiswahili grow and our flag will fly even higher in those countries they will be playing soccer,” the minister concluded.
Samatta, who is Taifa Stars captain, plays for KRC Genk in Belgium.
TFF president Wallace Karia, who was recently elected to the Council for East and Central Africa Football Associations (Cecafa) president and Taifa Stars head coach Etienne Ndayiragijje were in attendance during the meeting which was held in Dar es Salaam.