North Bank Region representatives Mansawally FC were on Sunday crowned champions of the U-17 Girls League Development tournament at Jarra Soma.
The first of its kind, the competition, meant to help develop women footballers is jointly organised by The Gambia Football Federation (GFF) and football’s world governing body.
Goals from midfielder Nyima Jaiteh, defender Bintou Jatta and striker Aminata Drammeh were enough to defeat Upper River Region’s Kuteh Jumbulu 3-0 to claim supremacy in the competition.
Mansawally put up a dominant fight throughout the competition, defeating every opponent they came across and scoring 35 goals in the process without conceding any.
Young sensation Aminata Drammeh finished as the leading scorer, netting 14 times in 7 matches while her closest challenger Maimuna Dukureh of Farafenni bagged in eight.
As champions, Mansawally received a trophy, gold medals and five balls, while second place Kuteh Jumbulu received a trophy, silver medals and five balls. Third place side Farafenni went home with a trophy, bronze medals and five balls and fourth place Bansang returned to CRR with five balls as consolation.
The tournament featured teams from the North Bank, Upper, Central and Lower River regions. It is been used as a pilot phase to develop women’s grassroots football initiated by the Football House and funded by FIFA to increase girls’ participation in football, thus getting them ready for league football.
Meanwhile, the second phase of the league is set to take place in the Greater Banjul Area for teams from Banjul, Kanifing Municipality and the West Coast Region.
