The Gambia Football Federation for the next 10 days would be focused on developing young stars with the hope of unearthing new talents that it hope would be representing the country at local and international competitions in the future.
This is done in the form of a national football jamboree that is organised in two folds with the first bringing together boys and girls aged between 12 and 15 in the Greater Banjul Area for a two-day camp at the National Technical Training Center (NTTC) in Old Yundum with the second phase eye-marking the same age category for those in the four provincial regions of the country to converge at Jarra Soma next weekend.
This is part of the Federation’s four-year national football development strategic plan that is in the implementing stage of a devised mechanism to identify young talents at the schools and train them to becoming future global stars in an effort to bridge the current talent drain at the schools level.
Speaking in an interview with www.gambiaff.org, Mr. Sang John Ndong the Technical Director of the GFF described the programme as a dream come through. He said it is the initiative of the Technical Department of the Federation to have the best players identified from the grassroots programme and bring them together.
“It is both for boys and girls so that we can have a good national team. We will proceed to Soma [in the Lower River Region] where the regions will also bring in their kids for a similar edition,” Mr. Ndong, a former National Team Captain and goalkeeper who went on to coach the Senior National Team on more than two separate spells said.
The Grassroots Football Coordinator at Football House, Mr. Ebrima Nyassi, said this weekend’s activities are a follow-up to the grassroots football tournament piloted for Banjul, Kanifing Municipality and West Coast Region where the kids are taught the basics of football.
“The final was a selection of the schools that won at the regional level to compete amongst themselves. So we are here as a follow up to the ones we selected as the best amongst the rest for a jamboree within Banjul, Kanifing and West Coast. These are all players selected from the pilot phase and it is meant for future national team,” he concluded.