According to the online Cambridge dictionary, professionalism is the combination of all the qualities that are connected with trained and skilled people.
This means a person cannot be referred to as a professional man in a given field if he does not have skill or training in that particular field.
The same thing can be said about professional soccer players.
They are skilled trained players who earn their living from plying their ware, in this case, soccer.
For one to be engaged by a professional soccer club (that does its business through soccer) as a player, it is important that that man’s level of soccer is to the satisfactory of the club.
Therefore a professional soccer club would only engage a player not because such a player loves it, but because the club is satisfied by the level of the player’s soccer skill that include, among others, his ability to score goals.
In East Africa, Tanzania’s neighbours to the north, Kenya, has done extremely well in the realm of professional soccer.
Other four other members of the East African Community, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania, have a long way to go.
There are two professional Kenyan soccer players playing in quality European clubs, Macdonald Mariga (Inter Milan, serie A, Italy) and Dennis Oliech (Auxerre, French ligue, France).
When one looks critically at why the two Kenyans were picked to ply their ware at such high level football, two things come into the mind, high academic level and football skill.
Both Kenyan players completed their education at Kamukunji High School in their country before they were snatched by the two top flight soccer clubs.
Back home, in Tanzania, things are not very good as far as professional soccer is concerned.
The few Tanzanian who passes out as professional soccer players are plying their wares abroad are in nondescript clubs.
And their inclusion, now and then, in the national soccer team, Taifa Stars in continental and World Cup qualifications have been nothing, but insignificant.
In fact there is very little difference, in terms of standard, between the so-called professional players and their local counterparts!
If the national soccer coach is really serious about turning around Taifa Stars, it is better he concentrated on new, local players.
What is more, continued reliance on Simba, Young Africans players will certainly take him nowhere for the simple reason that most of them lack both drive and commitment.
For the ‘doubting Thomas’, here are the facts: When Taifa Stars went down by five goals to nil against their Egyptian counterparts, DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) players commented that Tanzanian players were not taking their game seriously.
They said they could not understand how a team could go down by five goals to nil without struggling by way of even forcefully stopping their opponents.
One DRC player had this to say about the character of our players: “a goal is scored by the opponent and instead of feeling sorry, one smiles!”
Yet these are the players we believe would one day take us to the continental and world soccer stages!
If we want to forge ahead in soccer, then we should do the following things:
There is a need to stop making use of nominal professional soccer players from abroad and those from the two top clubs.
This is because the two set of players badly lack professionalism.
That is why Taifa Stars are getting nowhere despite being the most paid and well cared team in the country’s soccer history!
In fact, as far as the foregoing question is concerned, the Tanzania Football Federation, TFF, have done their level best.
Consider the following: Three years ago, TFF spent (money donated by Serengeti Breweries and the National Microfinance Bank, NMB) 2.8bn/- on the team, but the country got nowhere!
And as if that was not bad enough, this year one of the biggest circus is going on, as clubs prepare to sign new players.
Former Yanga player, Ngassa, currently with Azam was recently quoted by a local newspaper as saying that he was sick and tired of playing for his current club.
He surprised many observers when he said he wanted to return to his former club.
The local paper alleged that Ngasa said he was tired of being the centre of heckling and back-biting.
His former club has since the young man left for Azam never stopped talking about getting the him back!
When you read and listen to the whole crap, you would think that Ngasa is the greatest thing that ever happened to Yanga, that without the player, the club will cease to function!
But for some of us who have seen the club climb to great heights in the days of Asante Kotoko when allegiance rather than money played a vital role, it is time the club stopped debasing itself by going for players who were in very good frame of mind (and we continue to think still are) when they decided to leave the club.
As already noted, players like Ngasa are being troubled by one thing, lack of professionalism.
They are the kind of players who are still living in the past, refusing to consider themselves as professional soccer players.
Instead of mulling about going back to his former club, Ngasa is best advised to work on his football so that he could help his club win the national league.
Ngasa needs to ask himself serious questions over his failure to remain in England when he went for trial at the West Ham United.
There is something wrong with his professionalism. He needs to work on it now than ever before.
Talking about Ngasa and professionalism, this reminds me of the late Syllersaid Mziray, a local coach who trained both Simba and Yanga.
He told me that top coaches who had played for Simba and Yanga could not train both teams because of their love for either side.
He said such coaches were not professionals because they were dictated by their interests/love in either club.
The same criticisms on the players should be trained against both Simba and Yanga who have for years failed to go beyond the finals of the continental clubs tournaments.
The question is when do they want to be taken seriously by their fans and Tanzanians in particular?
By Attilio Tagalile
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