In its continuous stride to promote and develop football at the grassroots level, The Gambia Football Federation (GFF) Saturday 13th July, 2019, began a two-day national talent search in regional Gambia at the Federation’s sponsored Soma Mini Stadium in the Lower River Region.
The players, aged between 12 and 15 in both the boys and girls categories is a four-year football development concept adopted by the Federation that is aimed at scouting the best talents across the country by training and molding them to become new national stars. This will culminate with the realisation of the National Football Center of Excellence that is expected to kick start in two years. It is hoped that this will finally end the talent drain in the country.
Speaking to www.gambiaff.org, the Technical Director of the GFF, Mr. Sang John Ndong, highlighted the motive of the programme and said it came about as part of his Department’s activities during the schools competitions where regional coaches went round to identify the best boys and girls from both U-12 and U-15 categories in the Greater Banjul Area and the regions of North Bank, Lower, Upper and Central River. He said a total of 60 players from each region have converged to showcase their talents and get exposed to the basic techniques of football. He added that it is also the desire of his Department to ensure that these players would form the basis of the country’s feature age category teams.
“The event will feature three fundamental scouting methods/faces, basic/functional part which sees them exposed to ball control skills, which will be followed by a small sided game and finally a normal football game,” he told our reporter Amadou O. Bah, accompanying the delegation to the region’s economic capital.
Mr. Ndong further noted that the GFF Executive Committee is committed to show action and in the next two years intends to put up the center of excellence with support from the technical team, regional and national coaches as well as stakeholders. “The structures are up, but we don’t have to rush, probably with this initiative we will build up a national academy next year,” he further disclosed, noting that the initiative is in two folds, which is qualifications of coaches nationally and identify kids at an early age for a better representation.
“One of the objectives set by the Technical Department is for kids to have access to quality coaches at their young level rather than waiting until they reach divisional levels. Presently, our target is to train at least 10 coaches and 75 Physical Education teachers and youth coaches annually for the D- License because the C, B and A License are on hold and been reviewed by CAF and there is a convention to come out for us to agree and sign for implementation.”
Mr. Ndong, a former National Team goalkeeper and skipper himself, concluded that there’s a massive improvement in women’s football in The Gambia under the leadership of Football House and thus this has once again proven that there should be equal opportunities given to both boys and girls in every sphere of our national development.
