by Arfang M.S Camara
The Gambia Women’s National Team arrived in Cameroon in the early hours of Wednesday morning ahead of their African Women’s Cup of Nations (AWCON) qualifiers away to the home side.
Mariama Sowe’s side will play away to the Indomitable Lionesses at the Ahmadou Ahidjo Stadium in Yaoundé on Friday at 15:30 local time, 14:30 GMT with the return leg at Bakau’s Independence Stadium on February 23. The winner over the two legs will qualify for the AWCON in Morocco later this year.
The Gambian team, seeking their first AWCON appearance in history have 23 players in Cameroon including the country’s all-time leading scorer Adama Tamba, FC Luzern’s Haleema Hamilton Froiland and Ida Mbye, who all play in Europe. The whole delegation of 35 did a mandatory Covid19 test upon arrival at the Yaoundé Airport and all the rapid test results returned negative.
The team, that is made up of 19 local based players and four professionals also include Executive Committee member Alhagie Faye as the Head of Delegation and Sang John Ndong, the current Technical Director at The Gambia Football Federation (GFF) as a Technical Adviser.
The Queens will hold their first training session at the Ahmadou Ahidjo Stadium at 4:30 local time.
Cameroon are four times AWCON finalists and head coach Gabriel Zabo has invited 25 players, amongst which include six Europe based players.
Source: GFF