Coach Elieneza Nsanganzelu: Tanzania can bring the TotalEnergies U-17 AFCON trophy home

Tanzania coach Elieneza Nsanganzelu says his side’s historic run to the final of the TotalEnergies CAF Under-17 Africa Cup of Nations, Morocco 2026, is proof that the country and East Africa have the talent to compete with the continent’s best.

The Serengeti Boys will face Senegal in Tuesday’s final at the Moulay El Hassan Stadium in Rabat after becoming the first Tanzanian team to reach the final of a continental youth competition.

Tanzania had already achieved their first major target by qualifying for the FIFA U-17 World Cup, but their penalty shootout victories over Algeria and Egypt have taken their campaign to another level.

Nsanganzelu says the achievement is the result of preparation, belief, scouting, training and investment, rather than luck.

He also believes Tanzania’s success should become a turning point for youth football development in the country and across East Africa.

Ahead of the final against Senegal, the coach spoke about the team’s mentality, the rise of 14-year-old Dismas Shida Athanasi, the importance of building proper development pathways, and what Tanzania must do to win the title.

He insists his players must remain calm, follow their strategy and believe they can bring the trophy home.

Below is the Q&A interview with the Tanzania coach

Coach, Tanzania have reached the final of the TotalEnergies CAF U-17 Africa Cup of Nations for the first time. When you look back at this journey, what does this achievement mean to you personally and to Tanzanian football?

Personally, I am very excited and very happy. We put a lot of energy into the preparation, and the whole country made a big effort, so to see this achievement is special.

It gives us belief that we must keep the same standard because, in the future, this can take us from one level to another.

Before the tournament started, did you believe this team had the quality, discipline and mentality to go all the way to the final?

Before the tournament, we believed we could do something.

If you remember, during the CECAFA qualifiers, we played all the matches from the group stage to the final and won every match. The quality we created in our team gave us the belief that we could achieve something.

Of course, we could not say clearly that we would reach the final, but our first dream was to qualify for the World Cup. That was our target when we left Tanzania.

After we qualified, we trusted the process and said we would take it one match at a time and see how far we could go.

You said earlier in the competition that Tanzania had achieved the first mission by qualifying for the FIFA U-17 World Cup. Now you are in the final. How has the mentality of the team changed since then?

Since the group stage, after playing two or three matches, the belief became stronger.

Everyone started to think that if we could achieve the first target, then maybe we could do something more. That changed the mentality of the players, the staff, the administrators, the fans in Tanzania, the government and everyone supporting us.

Achieving the first stage gave us the strength to keep fighting until this point.

Your team have shown great character in the knockout stage, especially by winning penalty shootouts against Algeria and Egypt. What has made these young players so mentally strong under pressure?

Penalty shootouts are always 50-50. Anyone can win.

But if you remember the match against Algeria, when the match was ending, every player was crying because they felt they deserved everything. That raised their character before the penalties.

After the group stage, we trained on penalties every day. Finishing 90 minutes without losing against Algeria gave the players a very strong mentality and a good attitude when they approached the penalty shootout.

Also, our goalkeeper is a good goalkeeper. We knew him from Tanzania and we knew he could save penalties. That belief in the goalkeeper also gave confidence to the penalty takers.

Dismas Shida Athanasi is only 14 years old, but he has become one of the standout players of the tournament and one of its leading scorers. What makes him such a special talent?

What we have been building from the start is the team. Dismas is part of the team.

If you observe our team, anyone can score goals. That is why you find players with three goals, two goals and one goal. It is not a one-man show.

Dismas has done well, but the players around him also make him better. As a young boy, we see a good future in him. He just has to keep working, keep building himself and keep fighting until the end of the tournament.

How far do you think Dismas Shida Athanasi can go in his career if he continues to develop in the right way?

He must keep pushing. We believe he can go far because he is still very young and has a long way to go.

There are players, like the young boy at Liverpool, Trey Nyoni, who started playing at a high level at a very young age. We believe Dismas also has a lot to do to prepare himself for his career, and we believe he can become a professional player soon.

At such a young age, Dismas is already attracting attention. What must be done to protect him, guide him and make sure he develops properly without too much pressure?

This is important not only for Dismas, but for all the players.

We had a meeting two days ago to remind them that when we started there was no noise. Everyone was in their comfort zone, taking information and trying to execute.

Now there is a lot of noise from everywhere — the media, people, agents, teams from Tanzania and teams from outside. My advice to him is to stick to what he was doing before and remain part of the team.

Sometimes players lose focus because they start trying to do things for themselves. We advise them to remain team players, stay consistent and let whatever comes arrive at the right time.

Apart from Dismas, which other players in this Tanzania team do you believe have the potential to go far in their careers, and what qualities make them special?

In this Tanzania team, apart from Dismas, every player has potential.

If you observe our matches with a good eye, you will see that it is not an individual team. No one is more special than the other. It is the collectiveness that shows how Tanzania are playing.

I believe the effort of every player has made the team what it is. For me, each player can develop and play abroad or in professional leagues.

Tanzania’s success has excited many people across East Africa because achievements like this are rare for the region at continental youth level. What does this run say about the potential of football in Tanzania and East Africa?

In Tanzania and East Africa, there is a lot of potential and a lot of talent.

What we are missing is the establishment of a proper pathway. We need to create a good pool of talent nurturing because that will give us even more quality players.

If we do that, the level of the game will go higher and we will have very strong teams in future. I believe Tanzania and East Africa can be on the map of African and world football.

What must Tanzania and other East African countries do to maintain this momentum and continue building strong youth national teams?

Federations and governments must invest in academies and development centres.

They must also invest in proper coaching education, proper competitions and proper scouting. All these things together will bring out the talent we have and develop it to the next level.

If we do that, we can have strong national teams in the future.

Do you think this success should lead to more investment in youth academies, school football, coaching education and regular age-group competitions in Tanzania?

Yes, absolutely.

This success should encourage more investment in academies, centres, coaching education, scouting and proper competitions. These are the things that help young players grow in the right way.

Talent is there, but we must build the right structures around it.

What are the biggest lessons you and your players have learnt from competing against some of the strongest youth teams in Africa at this tournament?

The biggest lesson is that our mentality must be higher than the mentality of everyone we compete against.

Sometimes, before playing, teams lose just by hearing the name of the country they are facing because that country has done well before. But we have learnt to play our football and our own way, the way we have trained from day one.

That is the lesson we are taking: what we are doing is the right thing, and if we keep doing it, it will give us results.

You will face Senegal in the final, a country with a strong reputation for producing excellent young footballers. What do you think of Senegal as opponents?

Senegal are a strong opponent. They have a big name in football.

But at the level we have reached now, we can also say Tanzania are becoming a big football nation. We are going to battle against Senegal because we believe the style we play can give us an advantage.

We also believe we have the capability to defend against the way Senegal play. In football, 11 players from Senegal will come onto the pitch and 11 players from Tanzania will also come onto the pitch. That gives us equality. Whoever does better will win the match.

What kind of final are you expecting against Senegal, and what will Tanzania need to do well to win the trophy?

It will be a very tough final because Senegal have confidence and they have done it before.

For us as Tanzanians, we need to stick to our strategy. We need to be calm, stay away from pressure and play our game.

If we do that, we can bring the trophy to our country.

When young players in Tanzania and across East Africa watch your team in this final, what message do you want them to take from this historic journey?

The big message for Tanzania and East Africa is that we are able to do it.

There is no miracle. It is about investment, bringing players together, training and training, scouting and scouting, competing and competing. That is what has brought us here.

To every child out there, believe in yourself. Keep training and your dreams will come true.