Ally Samatta is beginning to look like Le Havre’s attacking reference point again, with the Tanzanian forward turning a difficult first season in France into a far brighter start to the new campaign.
The Ligue 1 news
Le Havre were held to a 0-0 draw by Angers last Saturday, but Samatta was the clearest threat on the pitch. The 33-year-old attempted seven shots and struck the post with a powerful effort from distance.
It was another encouraging display from a player whose previous Ligue 1 season had become a long test of patience. After arriving from PAOK only two weeks before the start of the campaign, Samatta made a lively opening but repeatedly hit the woodwork before losing his starting place. He did not score his first league goal until the 29th round and ended the season with two goals.
This time, the signs are different. Samatta has already scored, heading home in the 1-1 draw at Lyon. Against Brest, in a 2-1 defeat, he also met a cross with a header that hit the crossbar; an offside decision on the move might have been reviewed differently by VAR.
More mobile, sharper in his combinations and stronger in duels, the former Tanzania captain has become a central figure in Didier Digard’s early-season plans. He has been deployed from the left in Le Havre’s past two matches after being used exclusively as a central striker last term.
“I believe I am the same player,” Samatta said. “Last season, I arrived two weeks before the competition began. I did not have a proper pre-season with the team and had to play straight away. There were several things I could not adapt to.”
The lack of goals weighed heavily on a forward with considerable experience. Samatta won the CAF Champions League with TP Mazembe in 2015 and the Belgian title with Genk in 2019. He has earned 79 Tanzania caps and scored 19 international goals.
“Of course it affected me,” he said. “Sometimes you have minutes and chances, but the goal does not come. The team, the coach and the staff all helped me feel that I had not done anything terrible, and to keep believing it would happen. Then it did.”
Digard had considered moving Samatta wide earlier, but Issa Soumaré had previously occupied that role before his departure for Rennes.
“I had been thinking about it for a while,” Digard explained. “In the air, Ally is more comfortable when he can make his run from deeper and arrive from the side for crosses, with more freedom. Even with his back to goal, linking play with the midfielders, I found him very coherent when he was slightly wider.”
The next appointment in France
Le Havre face Toulouse next, giving Samatta another chance to develop those new connections on the left side of the attack.
Having retired from international football, the former Taifa Stars captain will not have national-team commitments to interrupt his work with the club. For Le Havre, that leaves Samatta fully focused on building on a start that already feels a world away from last season’s frustration.
