The Technical Department, under auspices of the Gambia Football Federation (GFF), today concluded a five-day nationwide talent identification tour.
The tour is part of the GFF/FIFA Talent Development Scheme (TDS) lunched last year by the GFF President Lamin Kaba Bajo.
The Technical Department, under the leadership of Sang John Ndong, despatched a three-member scouting team led by Grassroots Football Manager Ebrima Nyassi, Regional Coordinator Lamin Sambou and Regional Coach Kebba Njie who toured the whole country and identified young talented players.
Speaking to the GFF Media in Kiang Generi, in the Lower River Region, Nyassi described the tour as very successful.
“First and foremost I pay gratitude to the GFF leadership for giving us this opportunity to go round for talent identification. I thank members of the tour team and our regional coaches on the ground. It was hectic, the weather here is really hot but we were able to do it. We’ve been through this for many years. I was really impressed. We saw a lot of talents, Gambia is blessed with talents,” he said.
Nyassi added that the identified players will begin training with their respective regional coaches before they are converged at the National Technical Training Centre for further development with the Youth National Team coaches.
For his part, the newly appointed GFF Coordinator for the Regions Lamin Sambou said the number of young talents discovered is unprecedented. “It is very impressive. There’re a lot of prospects in this project because what I have seen during this tour is eye-catching. There are lots of unseen talents, but today we’ve discovered them. I am very much amazed by looking at the number of players we had from each region. This shows that there are talents all over the country,” he said.
The team of scouts screened 542 across the four provincial regions (NBR, CRR, URR, and LRR).
The FIFA Talent Development Scheme (TDS), offered bespoke assistance to Member Associations (MAs) to help them achieve their full potential and continuing the measures taken to reduce the disparity in the level of football between different regions of the world.
