By Business Insider Reporter
Zanzibar is seeking to strengthen its youth football development system through a proposed strategic partnership linking Yanga Soccer School, Dulla Sunday Sports Academy and Brazil-based partner PQ Cruzeiro, with the ambition of creating greater opportunities for promising young players.
The partnership discussions emerged last week when senior officials and the technical team of Yanga Soccer School visited the office of Abdulsamad Abdulrahim of Ocean Business Partners, who is facilitating the initiative.
The Yanga delegation was led by Director of Competitions Ibrahim Mohamed and included Youth Teams Coordinator Khamis Jecha and Head Coach of Yanga Soccer School Haitham Saadun.
The discussions focused on establishing a framework for collaboration aimed at identifying, nurturing, developing and creating opportunities for young football talent from Zanzibar.
The proposed model seeks to combine the partners’ experience, technical capabilities and networks to create a talent-development pathway starting at grassroots level in Zanzibar and extending towards national and international football.
For Mr Abdulrahim, the objective is to move beyond isolated youth competitions and create a more sustained system through which talented young players can receive development opportunities and exposure to higher levels of the game.
“This is not just a football trip. It is the beginning of a broader journey to create pathways and opportunities for young talent from Zanzibar to reach national and international levels,” Mr Abdulrahim said.
The initiative is expected to gain an international dimension on October 5, 2026, when a delegation from Zanzibar is scheduled to travel to Brazil.
Mr Abdulrahim told Bysuness Insider that the delegation will comprise more than 18 young players, four coaches, families and representatives of the Zanzibar Government.
The trip is intended to expose the young players to an international football environment, giving them opportunities to play, learn, compete and gain experience outside Tanzania.
The Brazil connection is particularly significant to Mr Abdulrahim, who organised the initiative and is a former Honorary Consul of Brazil in Zanzibar through his previous diplomatic role. His company, Ocean Business Partners, is facilitating the programme.
The proposed collaboration brings together three different elements: youth talent development in Zanzibar, the football structures and technical experience associated with Yanga, and an international link through PQ Cruzeiro.
The longer-term ambition is to establish a pathway through which promising players can be identified early, receive appropriate coaching and competitive exposure, and progressively gain access to opportunities at higher levels of football.
Such a model could also create opportunities for coaches to gain new experience and exposure to different approaches to player development.
Mr Abdulrahim said he had assured Yanga SC and the other partners of his commitment to making the collaboration meaningful, sustainable and focused on tangible results for young people.
The initiative, he explained, presents a broader proposition than an overseas football tour: building a potential talent pipeline linking Zanzibar’s grassroots football with the wider Tanzanian and international football ecosystem.
“We believe in our young people. We believe in their talent. We believe in creating opportunities. And we believe in the power of partnership,” Mr Abdulrahim said. According to hi, the emerging collaboration represents an effort to turn that vision into a practical pathway for the next generation of football talent.
