Tanzania/Cameroon: Kihwelo to Name Final Squad for Cameroon Showdown

Tanzania Daily News (Dar es Salaam)

11 March 2011

THE final squad of the national U-23 soccer team, which will face Cameroon in the Olympics qualifiers in Yaoundé at the end of this month, is expected to be determined on Sunday.

Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) spokesperson Boniface Wambura said the squad currently has 32 players who will be trimmed to 25 to form the final squad ready for the trip to the Cameroonian capital on March 23.

The two sides will meet in the first leg of the qualifiers on March 27 before playing the return leg in Dar es Salaam two weeks later.

The team is now camping at Bamba Beach Hotel, Kigamboni in Dar es Salaam under coaches Jamhuri Kihwelo ‘Julio’ and Mohamed Ayoub, as well as team manager Mohamed Adolf Rishard, who was formally appointed yesterday.

“TFF is contacting Premier League outfits of Azam FC and Mtibwa Sugar so they can play friendly matches against the national U-23 team with a view to shaping the latter ahead of the qualifiers,” said Wambura.

He said efforts are also underway to see to it that the national U-23 team plays a much more competitive international friendly against Uganda’s U-23 squad before travelling to Yaoundé.

“We are still communicating with Uganda’s football governing body, FUFA, so that the latter’s U-23 squad could arrive in Dar es Salaam and play the friendly,” he said.

He noted that TFF attempted to secure an international friendly against Mozambique’s U-23 team but the latter’s football governing body said the Mozambican U-23 squad is preparing for a crucial assignment and will therefore not be ready to play the game.

Meanwhile, the national U-23 squad is likely to miss the services of talismanic striker Thomas Ulimwengu, who was yesterday expected to leave for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to undergo trials with the country’s big guns, Tout Pouisant Mazembe Englebert, alias TP Mazembe.

Wambura said TFF has written TP Mazembe, who are the two-time African Champions, requesting the team to allow the player to return to Dar es Salaam shortly before the national U-23 team travels to Yaoundé but Mazembe have not responded.

Ulimwengu, who is under the FIFA-licenced agent Damas Ndumbaro, was, until recently, playing for Swedish-based ABC Academy in search of greener pasture.

The youngster is a product of the Tanzania Sports Academy (TSA), which is governed by the TFF, and had played for Moro United in the top flight in 2009 before moving to Sweden.

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