Barely two weeks to the Scorpions training camp to Portugal ahead of the resumption of Afcon Qualifiers in November 2020, our Scorpions profile segment will this week spotlight two new comers to the call list of Coach Tom Saintfiet.
The newest entrant to the provisional 40 man squad released by Saintfiet is Modou Lamin Jarju whose history intrigues the minds of many Scorpion fans especially his apparent connections to Guinea Bissau, which some analysts believe his his birth place.
Very well known for his street name Chuka, Modou Lamin was born in Bakoteh the Gambia in September of 1997. His father hails from Kiang Dumbuto in the Lower River River Region but later settled in the suburb of Serekunda, where the young Chuka was born and raised.
Growing up, he attended school in the densely populated settlement, where he also kicked off street football before registering at School level.
He started formal football activities with Boca Juniors Academy in Bakoteh before moving to Jintos FC. Following his great performances at the later, Chucka was scouted by Pencha football team at the Serekunda West Nawettan where he played a season with the Dippa Kunda outfit. Following the team’s relegation, he swifltly made trials with Bakau United FC under Coach Kebba Jesper Touray but was short lived and later joined Gambia Ports Authority (GPA) Football Club, where he played 2 games and stayed with them for a year until he was plagued by a knee injury, which kept him out of the game for another year before he joined Wallidan F.C.
He played only one game with the Blues before deciding to move out of the Gambian shores where he made a sojourn to Bissau Guinea for greener pasture.
Six months later, his fortunes in the former Portuguese colony began to rise. After playing only 4 games in the Bissau league, he was spotted by agents scouting for top tier Portuguese side F.C Porto, who approached him and secured his signature but was later out on loan just within months to second tier side Gii Vicente for the 2016/17 season.
While on loan at Gii Vicente, he attracted the interest of Sabail FK of Azerbaijan where he would later joined the Baku-based side for 45 appearances between 2017 and 2019 before moving to Austrian top tier side Austria Wien in June 2019. 
Jarjue started well with the first team at Austrian Wien but later dropped to the reserve side upon his own request to gain more playing time than warming the first team bench for many of the period. That decision came out to be a blessing in disguise as his solid performances helped pushed the reserve side up the 2 Liga (reserve League) table, which handed him a recall to the first team and throughout last season he was fairing for both the first team and the reserves.
Jarju is among the new faces included in the 40 man list released by Gambian coach Tom Saintfeit recently. He was initially included in the 35-man squad listed back in March for the aborted AFCON double header with Gabon, but due to the cancellation of that game by CAF amid the Covid-19 pandemic, he couldn’t make his debut for the Scorpions.
Chucka is expected to join the Scorpions listed in the preliminary squad at their week-long training camp in the Algarve, South Portugal, where the team is expected to arrive on the 5th of October and will play two friendly matches with Congo Brazzaville on 9th October and the Syli Nationale of Guinea Conakry on the 13th October 2020.
At 6ft 2, the tall and powerful defender will be another towering figure alongside Omar Colley and Buba Sanneh in the Gambian defence, and again at 22, he has long career ahead that the country can benefit from. Jarju is a powerful Center Back and got good pace on his strides, along with a fair ball controlling skills, which allows him to be versatile and thus can also play as a midfielder or at right fullback.
