Gambian midfielder Ebrima Sohna has returned to the domestic top-flight league, 15 years after making his last appearance for boyhood club Banjul Wallidan. He signed a one-year contract with 2021 champions Fortune Football Club.
The Petroleum Boys are preparing for their debut season in the CAF Champions League as the country’s sole representative in continental competitions for the upcoming season and Sohna’s capture will serve as a welcome boost ahead of their preliminary round qualifiers next month. They will play Algerian side ES Setif in the first leg on September 10 before the deciding leg in Setif seven days later for a place in the next round.
“We are delighted to have finally reached an agreement with the Gambian international midfielder, Ebrima Sohna, who has signed a one-year contract with Fortune Football Club. Experience players plus youthful exuberance, a delightful fortune awaits,” Jane Joof’s side said in a statement on its official Facebook page.
“The much-revered midfielder has been training with the team for a while now. The hard tackling and evergreen star have acquired a wealth of experience in international football and his addition to our array of stars will be mega. As the team rolls towards the first leg of the CAF champions league preliminary round, Sohna’s addition will significantly help the team in its quest to pen another history.”
Sohna, a holding midfielder, came to global attention after helping The Gambia U-17 won the African Cup of Nations for the first time in 2005 in Banjul and went on to be a key member of the team that defeated Brazil and Qatar in the group stages of the FIFA U-17 World Cup in Peru.
He later graduated to the U-20 and helped a team led by the late Peter Bonu Johnson to qualify for the African Youth Championship for the first time in 2007 where they’d win bronze in Congo Brazzaville. Later that same year, he was part of the Gambian team that was knocked out by Austria in the last 16 stages of their maiden World Cup. He has been capped 37 times by The Gambia.
In 2007, the much-travelled Sohna signed his first professional contract with Sandefjord in Norway until 2012 when he left for RoPS. He also played for Kupio as well as Vostok and Al-Arabi in Kuwait. He was also in the books of VPS, Kesla and Mosta in Malta.
Sohna joined former Scorpion striker Momodou ‘Zico’ Ceesay in Fortune and his capture is a welcome boost for the domestic Gambian league that showed an unprecedented crowd thronged the Independence Stadium for the night matches in the just concluded campaign.