Mtagwa: Tanzania’s unsung football hero

Dar es Salaam. Today as he walks the busy streets of Dar es Salaam, not many people recognise him.

However, for soccer fans of the 1970s and 1980s, the name Jella Mtagwa, one of the best defenders of his generation, rings a bell.

Since his retirement from active football in 1984, Mtagwa, who captained the national soccer team, Taifa Stars, to the 1980 Africa Cup of Nations finals in Lagos, Nigeria, has kept a low profile.

He is no longer spotted at the National Stadium or Uhuru venue in Dar es Salaam during the Mainland Premier League matches or international games.

During his heyday, Mtagwa’s rare skills in thwarting heart-throbbing offensives almost at will, were enough to make him the undisputed prince of the Tanzanian football for 10 years.

Thus it came as no surprise when the then Tanzania Posts and Telecommunications Corporation, one of the institutions that were amazed by his impeccable timings on strikers, decided to use his portrait on stamps for commercial purposes in the 1980s.

Under his captaincy, Taifa Stars made their first ever appearance at the Africa Cup of Nations finals 37 years ago.

On November 11, 1979, Taifa Stars forced Zambia’s national soccer team, KK X1 (now Chipolopolo), to a 1-1 draw in their final Afcon qualifying match at the Dag Hammarskjoeld Stadium in Ndola, Zambia.

Taifa Stars, who had beaten the Zambians 1-0 in the first leg at the National Stadium in Dar es Salaam on October 28, 1979, sailed through on 2-1 goal aggregate.

Their efforts to achieve such memorable feat again have always ended miserably.

Former Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda, then regarded as next none in supporting the national team, was among hundreds of sports enthusiasts who turned up at the Ndola venue to cheer up the KK X1.

“That was the time when we played for the love of the game,” recalls the Tanzanian football legend who captained the national team for ten years.

“Today football is a big business,” Mtagwa says, smiling.

“We earned very little out of our sweat, but we were highly motivated. Contrary to the current players, footballers of our era felt proud to play for the national team,” he says.

A lot has changed in the former Taifa Stars skipper’s life since those glorious days.

Unlike his counterparts in many countries, especially in Europe, the country’s former soccer star strives to meet his daily needs.

Having done so much for the nation, Mtagwa and many others before and during his time, have been left to fend for themselves.

But these are players whose vast experience in the game could have been utilised by the country in unearthing and nurturing tomorrow’s soccer stars from the grassroots level.

Mtagwa’s face has not changed much from the handsome one that once graced the covers of newspapers and sports pages.

And what is more, he has not lost his love for the sport. He still recalls with nostalgia moments of his life at clubs like Pan African, Young Africans and the now defunct Nyota Africa.

While with Pan African, then one of the top clubs in the country, Mtagwa played alongside Leodegar Tenga, Adolf Rishard, Juma Pondamali and Gordian Mapango to mention but a few.

Born in 1954 at Mwembesongo in Morogoro Region, Mtagwa ventured into football at a tender age of ten while attending primary school at Mwembesongo from 1961 to 1967).

The rivalry between the country’s football heavyweights, Simba and Young Africans, which is as old as the country’s football history, is what prompted him to venture into the sport.

It was always the wish of the then a school boy to feature for one of the two teams as soon as he was old enough to take to the pitch.

In 1970, he signed for Nyota Africa as one of the Morogoro team’s second string players. The following year, he earned promotion to the team’s First Eleven, but he did not know what this career held for his future.

In 1972, Mtagwa, then a Form One student at Morogoro Secondary School, travelled with the regional team to Mwanza for Taifa Cup.

It was around this time that opportunities started to flow in for then versatile, lanky defender.

A few years later, Raymond Gama, then the national soccer team coach, included him in his squad for the World Cup qualifying matches.

His dream to play for one of the country’s big guns turned true as Yanga asked him to join the Jangwani Street team.

“I was very happy because, since my childhood, my ambition was not only to play for Yanga or Simba, but also for the national team,” he says.

In 1977, Mtagwa crossed over to pan African with the majority of key Yanga players, marking the biggest club break up in Tanzania’s football history.

Mtagwa says he finds it difficult to single out a match he remembers most due to the fact that he played for clubs and national team for more than ten years.

At club level, he says matches that will always remain memorable in his mind (while with Pan African) were against Nigeria’s Shooting Stars (Africa Winners Cup) and those against Yanga.

At national level, a World Cup first leg qualifier against Nigeria’s Green Eagles (now Super Eagles) in Lagos in 1972, which ended in a one-all draw, is another memorable clash for him.