Sang Mendy Head Coach

Clubs: St. Augustine’s Senior Secondary school, Great Alliance FC, New Castle FC in Brufut, Brufut United, Watford FC in the Gambia. Responsibilities: Team captain for St. Augustine’s Junior Team , Great Alliance, New Castle FC.   Achievements: Most outstanding junior player award in St. Augustine’s, won series of trophies with Great Alliance, New Castle and Watford.

Coaching Experience: Sang Mendy like any other Gambian or African child has grown with great talents and has the ambition of playing professional soccer. He was on the verge of realizing his dreams as his soccer skills has earned him admiration and trust in all teams he played for thus making him captain and a team leader. During his school days impressed some divisional teams like starlight then in the first division and hawks FC both in the capital City of The Gambia. The village boy who despite his skills and leadership qualities could not make it to the neither the second division nor the first as he could not afford transport fares to and from the respective training grounds. Feeling desperate and abandoned Mendy thought he could realized his ambitions with a local academy set up in 1996 but even with this he was better a coach than a player then his trainer recommended him to take up coaching which he tried in 1998 when he was still playing active soccer. Mendy on the same year had his first coaching batch locally and he continued coaching in the academy and other local leagues as well as play soccer where he achieve success with some of these teams notably Great Alliance FC and New Castle of Brufut. The man really took up serious coaching in 2003 when he was part of the coaches to be train on youth football by the founders of Gilkock football academy a local soccer academy at his home village. He was then recommended to continue coaching as it could be his future carrier. That same year, Sang had his first international coaching certificate under FIFA.  In 2005 he also had a national intermediate soccer coaching certificate whilst in 2007 he backed his intermediate certificate under FIFA. In the same year he was part of 30 coaches trained by a group of Swedish coaches on youth soccer. Sang is not only a coach but a trained and qualified Secondary teacher who hold a Higher Teaches Certificate for the Gambia College, a diploma in Mass Communication and is currently pursuing his Advance Diploma in Mass Communication. These and other refresher coaching clinic has fully prepared him to take up the HEAD COACH POSITION IN GILKOCK FOOTBALL  ACADEMY. You can contact coach Mendy at sang_mendy@yahoo.com or (+220) 7893861 With all these qualifications and qualities Sang still needs further training both home and abroad to better equip him with more knowledge in football such as sports psychology, sports science, marketing and more technical and tactical training. well as other coaches in Gilkock Football Academy

Player Profiles

Saikou Sarjo

Position: Midfield

Having faced with the challenge to combine academic and football Saikou Sarjo has now succeeded in putting both hands on deck and has since then poses a challenge of winning a place in the academy.

Saikou has the ability to play as a defender due to aggressiveness, agility and fast breaks. He is a midfielder by nature but when matters get worst he plays a striker.

A good dribbler, passer of the ball and dangerous without the ball when running into space. As a teenager his gain intelligence is summed up to good as he is seen co-coordinating the team during matches. He is yet to back a club at higher level but he is optimistic and Dearing to it and any club that has him won’t regret it. He was part of Brufut's third division team that went close to qualifying to the second division.

Ansumana Sonko

Position: Goalkeeper

Ansumana was among the first interns of the academy. He spent about four years with the academy. Tall, studded Ansumana learnt a lot through out his stay with the academy and has now proved to be the academy’s leading goal keeper. Described by pa Alieu Sanneh, the goal keeper trainer Ansumana is polite and always eager to lean new things. Moreover he is optimistic of rising to the highest level in the future.

Ansumana’s fine saves makes him the best goal keeper of the local league and voted the best goal keeper by the players and coaches of the academy. He is fantastic at his age with Arial balls and has a great vision of distribution. These qualities makes him the first choice keeper in the Brufut’s team that went close took third in the just ended third division and went on trials in a First Division side Real De Banjul. 

Ebrima Bojang

Position: Defender

Scouted from a local junior league in which he won the most outstanding player, Ebrima Bojang alias EB has improved well within his eight years stay in the academy. Tall, sturdy and strong Ebrima uses these physical qualities to cement his position in the academy.

His assets are he is a good man marker, good ball winner both on the ground and on air, accurate passing and shooting, good aerial combat, strong header and above all his ability to coordinate the defence in the thick of actions as well as a complete team player.

At the moment he is one of the most experience defender, as he is currently on loan with Real De Banjul a first division side. His laurels includes; he has been the captain of the academy’s  under 18  as well as winning the championship with Real De Banjul in the 2006/07 league in which he contributed well,  last year he played a record 18matches out of the possible 22matches and has this year continued his fine form even though the team struggled to pick form during the first round of the national league.  

3Sainey Jatta

Position: Midfielder

Many people outside the academy wonder when they heard Sainey Jatta been called little Kaka but perhaps those within the academy and those who watched him play once would understand the reason behind that name.

Sainey Jatta despite his age has proven beyond reasonable doubt that he is one of the brightest young stars in his community.

Amongst his abilities is accuracy, ability to move into good space with or without the ball and the nag to take on defenders when finding his way into the penalty area.

His laurels include being part of Hawks youth team for the past two years as well as leading his local football club for series of glories. His abilities have earned him calls to come on as a substitute to Hawks finest midfielder. He has already been featured for Hawks when he came in as a substitute in Hawks’ fourth game in the league and is hopeful to feature in more games in the second round of the league.

Sainey Manneh

Position: Central Defender (Utility)

Sainey Manneh, the son of a renowned player has since established himself and has proven to coaches that his long stay in the academy is really because of his hard work and ability to do what the academy is proud off. 

Sainey Manneh has the ability to play in defence, midfield and attack due to his height and skill. When playing in defence, he is admired by all and sundry including the junior players in the academy. As a central defender, Sainey’s qualities includes coordinating the defence, good aerial battler, strong on ad off the ball as well as accurate and precise ball passer. His qualities also include disposing his opponents from the ball and do rarely commit few fouls and most of all a team player. 

Coupled with his academic pursuit sainey Manneh has combined the two as he has continued to win the hearts of coaches during training and matches. Of recent, he played well in the national zonal championship as few of the youngest players to future in that championship. His laurels include captaining the village’s third division team that emerged runner up in the third division league. This is what earned him a place in Hawks’ youth team from 2007-08 and eventually the senior team. He is likely to feature in this year’s first division.    

Karamo Fatty

 Position: Full Back Right

Karamo is a late developer because he was late to join the academy but since he step his feet at the academy’s training ground and has acquainted himself with the boys ha realised he has something special that most players lack.

Karamo’s assets include good aerial combat, quick on the ball, very strong and dangerous in his own half, pacy, good cantering, powerful shots and above all a team player. His ability to man mark opponent as well as overlapping shows his competence as a full back player.

The assets mentioned made coaches believe that Karamo can play in more positions and thus sometimes used as midfielder or a winger. He is always willing to learn and has since promised to go the extra mile. He has not break through to any youth team yet but the boy really has the qualities many young stars like him don’t possess and has a great prospect in front of him.

Omar Gaye

Position: Central Defender

Omar Gaye known to many as Tea has been with the academy over the years and has lived to see his capabilities with the academy since he has grown from strength to strength over the years. He really has developed his game and his confident to play as central defender grows.

Tea as fondly called has assets such as good aerial combat, quick on the ball, very solid and dangerous in the opponents half, pacy, good cantering, veracious shots and above all a total team player. His ability to man mark opponent as well as overlapping shows his competence as a central defender.

Due to the above mentioned assets, he is sometimes used as a full back. He is always willing to learn and has since promised to go the extra mile. In 2007/08 he was an instrumental in helping Brufut united a third division side that emerged and this year he will lead the team this year following the absence of most of the boys.

Karamo Jatta

Position: Full Back Left

Karamu Jatta has been the wonder kid over the years as he was not sure of his capabilities but of recent Karamo has realised he has something special that most defenders lack.

Kams as fondly called has assets such as good aerial combat, quick on the ball, very strong and dangerous in the opponents half, pacy, good cantering, veracious shots and above all a total team player. His ability to man mark opponent as well as overlapping shows his competence as a full back player.

Due to the above mentioned assets, he is sometimes used as midfielder or a winger. He is always willing to learn and has since promised to go the extra mile. In 2007/08 he has been with Hawks youth team but was unfortunate to break through to the first team due to other engagements but is hopeful to come back soon. He was and is still part of Brufut United’s team that emerged champions of the Western Region Third Division and has also won series of trophies with his local club in Brufut.