Former spokesperson for Simba Sports Club, Haji Manara, who recently fell out with the team, has now officially crossed over to join the club’s arch nemesis, Young Africans (Yanga).
Haji Manara’s decision to jump ship from “Red and White” to “Green and Yellow” should further add fuel onto the historical rivalry between the two leading soccer teams in Tanzania.
Manara, during a press conference held in Dar-es-salaam, caused an uproar when he announced that his current team, ‘Yanga’ is the biggest club in East and Central Africa and that it suited his larger than life image.
A brand ambassador for Asas Dairies and Bakhresa Group Products, the charismatic and equally outspoken Haji Manara has always been among the most influential personalities in Tanzania. It was previously speculated that he may join Azam Football Club as spokesperson but now he is in Yanga.
He is the son of award winning footballer, Sunday Manara, who happens to be the first Tanzanian Sports personality to play in International Matches overseas. Haji’s defection to Yanga should thus be more or less ‘returning home’ to the team in which his father once fielded.
Little Haji (Right) grew up from a soccer family, courtesy of Daddy, Sunday
And despite serving the role of spokesperson, Haji also consider himself just like a professional football player, whose outstanding capabilities make teams fall upon themselves in their scramble to draft him in their respective stables.
Tanzania’s two top soccer teams, Simba Sports Club and Young Africans (Yanga) have always been fierce competitors, but following Haji Manara’s rapid switching from the former to the latter, the cold war between the country’s top sporting clubs should now be reaching freezing point.
A few weeks ago, Haji had called a Press Conference and used the platform to lodge complaints regarding what he described as ‘bad treatment’ from Simba Sports Club’s management