10 Interesting Facts You Need To Know About Villa’s New Striker And Kenya’s ‘Lost Son’ Mbwana Samatta

Tanzanian striker Mbwana Samatta became the first Tanzanian to sign for an English Premier League club.

Samatta’s move from Genk FC was announced on 21st January 2020.

The Tanzanian captain became also the second EAC player to feature in the popular league across the world, EPL.

Even though Aston Villa secured his move much earlier, his announcement had been halted as the EPL side struggled to secure his work permit.

Samatta will not immediately feature in the next match against Wolves

Interesting facts about Mbwana Samatta

1. He was born as Mbwana Samatta 27 years ago on born 23 December 1992 in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania
2. Samatta is a Muslim devotee who went as far as making tha famous the umrah to Mecca in 2018 with his teammate Omar Colley
3. He began his football journey back in 2008 with African Lyon before he joined Tanzanian giant Simba FC as a professional player in 2010
4. By 2011, he was working with TP Mazembe in Congo with a five year contract deal. He won the 2015 African based Player of the Year while in Congo asa well as finishing the season as the top goalscorer of the CAF Champions League as he helped TP Mazembe to win the title.
5. In 2016, he joined Belgian giants FC Genk where he helped them join Europa League and also winning the the Belgian Jupiler League in 2019.
6. He had also an outstanding season in Jupiler League as he emerged the top scorer and he was awarded with Ebony Shoe award 
7. This remarkable qualities attracted interests from Aston Villa who signed him in January 2020 for a four year deal
8. He is the holder of the first player from EAC to win the first player from East Africa the CAF African Player of the Year based on the continent.
9. He was voted in 2017 as the Most Influential Young Tanzanian in a ranking poll by Avance Media
10. He also holds other interesting privileges such as the first Tanzanian to score in the European Champions League, first Tanzanian to score in the Europa League, first Tanzanian to win the CAF Champions League while at TP Mazembe and the first Tanzanian to join an EPL side.