DIE-HARD local football fans cannot quite contain their excitement over the fact that the long-awaited new 2025-26 Mainland Premier League season is set to kick off on September 16, this year.

Unsurprisingly, this piece of news must sound like music to the ears of loads of passionate football devotees on the local scene.

Seeing as the intense battle for the league crown last season between age-old foes Simba and Young Africans (Yanga) went right down to the wire, it is expected that the Msimbazi Street-based side will make every effort to topple the defending champions Young Africans from their top position at the summit of local football once the perennially pulsating league football season officially kicks-off.

Naturally, it is a given that the reigning champions, Young Africans, will not easily cave in to their long-time rivals Simba, which means that we already have the makings of yet another epic fight for coveted league glory between these two bona fide juggernauts.

So, with both Simba and Young Africans eagerly raring to go, it is hoped that the new domestic football season will offer us all breathless thrills and spills.

Let us now consider the historic first achieved by our celebrated goals-getter Mbwana Samatta (pictured), who is now set to play for Le Havre in French football’s premier division, known globally as Ligue 1.

But, before we discuss this latest illustration of Samatta’s football greatness, it would be fitting for us to take a brief pause and reflect on the absolutely immense odyssey that Samatta has undertaken starting from the genesis of his trailblazing career to the present-day.

Once the brilliantly prolific Samatta had firmly established himself as one of our country’s most sublime center-forwards, a lot of prominent African football clubs were queuing up to sign him but in the end, our destructive attacker opted to sign a lucrative deal to play for DR Congo’s undisputedly biggest side, TP Mazembe.

Indeed, Samatta’s glorious exploits at TP Mazembe powered his Congolese football outfit to capture the highly prized CAF Confederations Cup in 2016.

As a result of his magnificent exertions in the 2016 CAF Confederations Cup, Samatta deservingly won the African Player of the Year award, which was a remarkable and unprecedented achievement in local football.

Following that terrific footballing feat, Samatta became something of a globetrotter as he went on to have spells in Belgium, Turkey and England before arriving at his new football team Le Havre in Ligue 1.

One hopes then that Samatta can make a lasting positive impact on French football as he begins this new chapter of his illustrious football career.

Let us now zero-in on the always exciting realm of world athletics, where sprinters and long-distance runners often leave us utterly impressed by their sheer unique athletic prowess.

With the 2025 world athletics championship set to begin on September 13 in Tokyo, it is extremely disturbing to note that our local athletes have dragged their feet where our preparations for this greatly esteemed sports competition is concerned.

Understandably, you, Dear Reader, most likely share my concern over whether our participation at this global Athletic Championships will prove to be a humiliating experience for our country.

Nevertheless, there is no use in crying over spilt milk. Besides, at this Eleventh Hour of our preparations, all we can do is pray and hope for the best.