Back and Next - Back and NextConfusion over Gambia’s head coachship
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
There is a great confusion over who is the head coach of the Gambia Under 20 team that are currently engaged in the maiden WAFU Under 20 Championship in Nigeria.
Barely weeks before the start of the 16-team sub-regional tournament in the former British colony, the Gambia Football Association drafted in two local coaches – Alagie Sarr and Pa Suwareh Faye - to take over from the out-of-favour Lamin Sarr, whose two-match stewardship led to Gambia’s shock elimination from the qualifiers of the 2009 African Youth Championships in Rwanda.
The president of the Gambia Football Association, Seedy Kinteh, later confirmed the nomination of the duo to guide the Darling Scorpions to the two-week tournament, but the GFA supremo fell short of stating who between the two would be head coach.
However, Alagie Sarr - who was spotted several times leading the training session well before the team’s departure for Nigeria was assumed by Observer Sports to be the head coach, though this assumption seems not to be true.
“You have to be careful how you address these two coaches [Sarr and Faye] because it was not stated who the head coach is between the two. They are just working together as partners,” a source told Observer Sports in Nigeria.
When contacted to shed more light on the matter, Mr Omar Ceesay, the vice-president of the Gambia Football Association who doubles as Gambia’s head of delegation in the Nigeria youth event, said he was not in a position to state who the head coach is. Cessay, however, admitted that a ship cannot have two captains.
Observer Sports later contacted one of the coaches, Alagie Sarr to be precise, for clarification and the Sea View head coach said: “It is true that no head coach was identified prior to our coming to Nigeria but that makes no difference because I and Pa Faye have known each other for a long time now.”
“We have worked together before, and I must confess that I always enjoy working with him. We always consult each other and the fact that we listen to each other makes the job easy for us,” Sarr added.
Barely weeks before the start of the 16-team sub-regional tournament in the former British colony, the Gambia Football Association drafted in two local coaches – Alagie Sarr and Pa Suwareh Faye - to take over from the out-of-favour Lamin Sarr, whose two-match stewardship led to Gambia’s shock elimination from the qualifiers of the 2009 African Youth Championships in Rwanda.
The president of the Gambia Football Association, Seedy Kinteh, later confirmed the nomination of the duo to guide the Darling Scorpions to the two-week tournament, but the GFA supremo fell short of stating who between the two would be head coach.
However, Alagie Sarr - who was spotted several times leading the training session well before the team’s departure for Nigeria was assumed by Observer Sports to be the head coach, though this assumption seems not to be true.
“You have to be careful how you address these two coaches [Sarr and Faye] because it was not stated who the head coach is between the two. They are just working together as partners,” a source told Observer Sports in Nigeria.
When contacted to shed more light on the matter, Mr Omar Ceesay, the vice-president of the Gambia Football Association who doubles as Gambia’s head of delegation in the Nigeria youth event, said he was not in a position to state who the head coach is. Cessay, however, admitted that a ship cannot have two captains.
Observer Sports later contacted one of the coaches, Alagie Sarr to be precise, for clarification and the Sea View head coach said: “It is true that no head coach was identified prior to our coming to Nigeria but that makes no difference because I and Pa Faye have known each other for a long time now.”
“We have worked together before, and I must confess that I always enjoy working with him. We always consult each other and the fact that we listen to each other makes the job easy for us,” Sarr added.
Author: by Nanama Keita in Delta State, Nigeria
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