BY: Media Officer Foday Jatta

Real de Banjul President William Abraham has called on the club’s coaching and playing staff to be more dedicated and committed to the Club in an end of season annual meeting held at the Oasis Apartments in Senegambia.

The meeting was organized at the back of a season that saw the City Boys finish second in the GFF First Division League and losing six players who all secured professional football contracts.

Making his remarks at the gathering, club President Abraham called for everyone’s commitment to the club saying that “if you are part of a team, you’ve to be part of it and have discipline which is broad while dedication is another important feature a person needs to succeed in life.”

Abraham added: “These qualities are broad and includes a lot of things. If you’re part of a setup, you need to be part of it in a way that you make sure that you are achieving the goals of that place but not just to be there for your selfish interest. People should not just be showing up when it’s time for benefits and lack behind when it’s time for work. I am the president of the club but people who are my bosses put me in this position.”

“This is a team that was formed since 1966, the oldest in the country. It took a lot of hard work to be here today as the biggest club in the county. Our wish is to be one of the top clubs in Africa but that can only be if we are all committed to Real de Banjul.”

The Club’s Technical Director, Pa Suwareh Faye, is with the opinion that Real de Banjul got a successful season saying: “This is one of the most successful seasons for Real de Banjul because, the club has transferred six players this season and we were able to name only eighteen players on the matchday squad for last of the season and because of your dedication and commitment, we were still able to finish second.”

“Lamin Saidy has at some point got invitations to the national team, from there four players got invited to the national CHAN team, four to the U20 for the WAFU and now five to the U23s who are preparing for a home base players’ AFCON qualifier,” Faye added.

The Gambia U20 captain Kajally Drammeh joined Cape Town City of South Africa while Ebrima Jarju, Ebrima Singhateh, Bubacarr Tambedou, and Foday Darboe all joined Estonian giants and partner club Paide Linnameeskond with striker Babucarr Jallow moving to Angola’s Wiliete SC.

Ten players have been invited to various national team setups with Lamin Saidy, Gregory Sambou, David Sambou, Modou Manneh, Samba Jallow, and Muhammed Baldeh all being called up to The Gambia U23 while Alieu Gibba, Yaya Bojang, Salifu Colley and Abdoulie Baldeh were invited to the U20.

For his part, head coach, Bye Malleh Wadda said: “It has been a difficult season, we wanted to win the league but it wasn’t possible at the end. I have to say this is difficult for the fans but our aim was to give them something to celebrate. For the club point of view, it has been a successful season because the target was to sell at least three players and we ended up selling six which is a massive achievement and this is what we want to do, recruit and prepare players for the professional leagues. It feels so good that players we’ve worked with get settled quickly in that level of their careers.”

As one of the top clubs in Africa that move players and continue to lose talents to clubs in the professional leagues around the world, Real de Banjul has also this season successfully created three category teams of age groups where talents can be nurtured from tender ages to serve as feeder teams to the first team and also minimize signing players from other clubs.

Sporting Real that serves as B team is created and already qualified to compete in the Banjul Regional Third Division, followed by Live Your Dream Sports Academy that comprises of U15s and U12s.

Club captain Gregory Sambou, who spoke on behalf of the players, said: “We will like to thank the management, we’ve seen the efforts you did for the team to achieve success. Though, our wish was to win the league but due to circumstances we could not, but I think it was in our hands as we had control of the table in the beginning before we gave it away towards the end of the first round and it slipped away from our hands.”

“We will prepare better for the coming season but if we want to win title we need to be committed and honest to one another and we all  have to add more efforts and dedication to the team in other to win the title next season because God reacts to our attitudes.”