At Azam FC, I remember that Aishi Manula came from the outfit’s youth team. He was promoted to the senior team and became a famous footballer. At Simba SC, midfielder Jonas Mkude remains the last player from the youth set-up to have that luck.
I think the financial problems that faced the club helped such footballers at that time. Yanga had main sponsor Yusuf Manji. Azam FC was, as usual, under Bakhresa family's sponsorship.
Simba SC did not have financial stability. The outfit tried to convince local football followers by claiming that its policy was to promote youngsters, the likes of Mkude, Ibrahim Ajibu, Miraji Athuman, and others.
It was a period in which Yanga and Azam FC held the top two positions in Premier League for five consecutive years with Azam FC winning the top-flight title once while Yanga won it four times in a row.
Later on, Manji left Yanga, and then popular businessman Mohamed Dewji joined Simba SC. Yanga returned to where the Msimbazi Street club left.
With Yanga struggling financially the outfit had to sign a young player Yohana Mkomola to lead its striking force. The club went through a difficult period.
Today the outfit is under, among others, GSM Group's sponsorship and has returned to signing good strikers who have the status to lead Yanga's striking force, one of whom is DR Congo's Fiston Mayele.
After many years, Yanga promoted Clement Mzize. He has suddenly been brought in from the side's youth team and started playing in Yanga's first team, supporting Mayele. He is scoring goals.
Mzize's mixture of hard work and luck implies that Yanga did not find the right person to help Mayele. The DR Congo goal-getter's compatriot Heritier Makambo is out of form.
Yusuph Athuman hardly seems to hate sitting on the bench, having joined Coastal Union on a loan deal while Zambian Lazarous Kambole who seemed to have come to give Mayele a competition has failed to even wear a Yanga jersey and play at Dar es Salaam's Benjamin Mkapa Stadium.
Mzize has therefore come from Yanga's youth ranks to become Mayele's striking partner, the former is lucky.
The youthful attacker's other luck is the fact that he has found Yanga fulfilled. In modern football, prominent teams tend to rope in players.
They hardly have time to develop youngsters from youth teams. A player must be a very talented young man.
Money has ruled Tanzania and the rest of the world. Clubs that have the money tend to fill the space by signing stars, not bringing in players from the youth teams.
It is easy for Mzize to excel in the senior squad for two reasons. First, the side's fans do not put pressure on him because they know that even if he hardly scores goals, there are still many players who can score.
The fans cannot put pressure on a performer who is under 20 years old when there are experienced players like Stephan Aziz Ki, Tuisila Kisinda, Jesus Moloko, Mayele, and others on the pitch.
If only Mzize had been playing with average players then it is no wonder football followers would not have seen his edge. He plays in a team that creates a lot of chances.
He plays in a team that dominates the game most of the time. In most of the games, Yanga has the majority of the possession.
If he happened to be in an outfit that cannot either dominate each match or create chances, I believe that he would also have been seen as part of the problem.
Sometimes it is easier for a club to raise a young player in this kind of environment. Mzize reminds me of England's Manchester City winger, Phil Foden.
Foden may be the last youngster to be promoted by Manchester City and become a big star in a club in England.
It was easy for Foden because his coach, Pep Guardiola, had created a team that dominated games and scored many goals.
Football enthusiasts ought to leave Mzize for a while so the footballer can grow and play efficiently.
Yanga followers are so happy with him that they have started giving him many exaggerated praises.
They ought to give him time to continue to adapt and play more maturely. The truth is that he makes me happy with the way he plays.
Soccer fanatics will however still test him more the day he starts leading Yanga's striking force, which is currently under Mayele.
There is a lot of pressure when a footballer is entrusted with a team, such a footballer is required to show maturity.
Some players fail when teams start relying on them. It is easy for a footballer to be in a team that does not depend on him but it is not easy for a footballer when he depends on it.
One should ask Mayele properly when he fails to score for several matches in a row. His head suddenly hurts.
If Mzize starts to be assigned to a team when Mayele is, for instance, out of action for a month and a half, then football fans will discover Mzize's mental maturity in playing for a team like Yanga.
When Yanga will start to lose their edge then football followers will see the youthful attacker's mental toughness.
Otherwise, he may be regarded as a player who has found a shortcut and seems to be doing it justice.
Soccer enthusiasts are used to feeling that until local players have what it takes to play for either Simba SC or Yanga, they should have been around playing for other local outfits for a long time.
Former goal-getter Mohamed Hussein alias 'Mmachinga' played for Africana, an outfit based in Newala, Mtwara for over 10 years and then went to Bandari Mtwara before joining Yanga.
Football followers watching Hussein turn out for Bandari Mtwara and then Yanga back then could have thought he was a new player in football but he had already played a lot in the past.
Mzize can play for a long time if he would be fielded sparingly. If he fulfills his talent then he will have helped the nation find a fearsome goal-getter.
The likes of Mbwana Samatta and John Bocco are about to leave the stage. Soccer enthusiasts have equally talked about how the nation has a difficult time bringing out talents.
I will be proud to see another local footballer successfully come up in a prominent side's striking force.
Bocco is the only footballer that has represented this country well as a central striker, enjoying tremendous stints for popular clubs.
The goal-getter is edging closer to his last footballing years. Others, if given a chance, will always exhibit their quality.
The most important issue for Mzize is he ought to avoid listening too much to what the fans tell him, the footballer should continue to work hard and develop.
I hardly have a problem with his ability to score, his physique, his speed, and the way he runs to find a chance to score. All these qualities require a footballer to be fit and get a chance to play.
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