Ebrima Manneh and Choro Mbenga have been the closest Gambians to be licensed as FIFA Course Instructors. Today Manneh is conferred with the license to instruct local courses designed and run by FIFA on top of his CAF Instructors license.
Manneh has over the years walked the top and within his three year stint at the Gambia Football Federation he has undergone series of capacity building training for technical technical directors and this week, he was conferred the license instruct local FIFA courses.
Now that CAF is done with the male, next on the agenda should be the women who are high in the development agenda of FIFA. In The Gambia the only woman qualified for this course is Choro Mbenga who has been sidelined for courses since she decided to resign from her post as the women football coordinator.
However, if Choro is not available, the two most suitable candidates are Mariama Sowe and maybe Fatou O Njie. These two and Choro are the only women with a CAF B-License in The Gambia. These two were in charge of the women national team last November when the Glasgow Girls played the women scorpions in November 2015.
Choro Mbenga has over the years been trained to become a local instructor. She did the course twice, in Cameron and in South Africa. The one she attended in South Africa, she was with Mariama Sowe.
Choro also attended similar training in Tanzania and Ethiopia. In fact it appears when Choro was acquiring her CAF B-License, only a few male Gambian coaches had the license.
If the above mentioned names aren’t chosen for this highly demanding job, the other possibilities would be Jainaba Cham and Mamlisa Camara, GFF members and or Sainey Sisohore, the youngest women coordinator in the world.
it is without doubt that these three; Jainaba, Mamalisa and Sainey will require vigorous rudimentary coaching training before they could be qualified to undergo the instructor’s course should they be picked by the Gambia Football Federation and this will leave The Gambia to play catch-up game with their fellow African countries.
Which name should be picked from the hat?