Arusha — TANZANIA through the Fountain Gate Academy of Dodoma is the first country in East Africa to produce young female footballers for Spanish soccer clubs.
The players from Fountain Gate selected to play in Spain are Mary Aaron, Ritticia Nabbosa and Zawadi Athuman.
The girls were among the 28 young footballers recruited by Spanish agents during the recently held East African Youth Soccer Tournament.
Known as Chipkizi Cup, the event whose 13th edition was held in Arusha, attracted 302 teams from all over the continent.
In total, the Fountain Gate Academy produced five young players, the three girls and two boys.
The Fountain Gate Boys who made into the Spanish agents list are Omar Selemani and Jaffary Mwanyemba.
Speaking during the tournament, the Director of Fountain Gate Academy Japhet Makau said the girls were members of the Under-15 Girls teams, which are currently the national champions in the category.
According to Makau, the Fountain Gate Under-15 Girls is the team which is going to represent Tanzania in the Council for East and Central Africa Football Associations (CECAFA) games.
The CECAFA games for Secondary Schools will start kicking off on January 15th in 2023.
Director Makau advised the Tanzania Football Federation that the Chipkizi Cup is the perfect forum to promote and boost soccer in the country.
"We take very positively the selection of five young players from Fountain Gate to go to Spain, because it is our dream to have young people benefit from talents and secure employment from sporting activities abroad," he said.
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During the Chipkiz Cup 2022, the Fountain Gate emerged winners of Under-7 boys category, Under-15 Girls and Under-20 Girls categories.
Alfred Itaeli, the Director of Future Stars Academy (FSA), which organises the East African Youth Soccer Tourney, admits that there are many agents from various clubs, including Spain that came to identify potential young footballers.
"For the first time we managed to get qualified talented girls recruited from Fountain Gate Academy," he added.
He added there will be talks between international soccer agents and local football academies to hatch a way forward in transforming their future into profitable sports engagements.
Among the recruits were six players from Azam, Five from Fountain Gate of Dodoma, 4 players from Eclat FC from DR Congo, 3 players from the Future Stars Academy of Arusha, 3 players from Saint Soccer of Kenya, 2 players from Amarigo of Uganda and 2 players from JKU of Zanzibar.
Others are 2 players from the PE Academy of Zimbabwe and one player from Idia Sports of Arusha.
