Gambia is running thin of excuses with the West African country blessed in all departments of the field as the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers resume in November.
There is tremendous hype ahead of this game especially on the side of the Scorpions amid high expectations on raining of goals being anticipated from coach Tom Saintfiet’s forwards.
Gambia’s attacking line for this encounter is to be led by the trio of Musa Barrow, Ali Sowe or Assan Ceesay. Ceesay has been the traditional goal-getter for Saintfiet.
His rise was surrounded by controversy with the Belgian gaffer accused of harbouring hatred for Bubacarr Trawally after he had opted for Assan. Ceesay rose to the billing silencing his critics beginning against Algeria in a tie ending 1-1 during a campaign he ended up fetching goals and tying the nation’s all-time scorer in the process.
The ensuing qualifiers even brought more luck, netting against Angola for the opening encounter but watched proceedings impotently from the bench against DR Congo.
During these times, the duo of Musa Barrow and Ali Sowe were given peripheral roles and behind Ceesay in the pecking. The order looks now on brink of going on reverse if Assan fails to get his rhythm at FC Zurich.
Club form will forever be a determinant in national team selections and Ceesay is definitely behind when compared to his new competitors for the squad. One thing, his loyalty for country is well noted -being there and fighting to nestle the ball to the back of the net at a time rebellion marred and caused some of the key star players to kick against coming for national team duties.
This favour will be remembered but he could be rendered disadvantaged if the Gabon game were to start now and his returns at a standstill.
Of recent, the 25-year-old has returned to Zurich armed with ambition of persuading coaches he is worth the keep for the upcoming season,scoring twice in a latest pre-season tie. Analysis aside, the decision of who gets what role is entirely the coach’s but statistics will always trigger debate and is cause for this article
Musa Barrow, the most expensive Gambian striker alive in this period, is in the form of his life and continued where he left of the previous football term scoring again for Bologna against a third tier Italian outfit.
He appears the man to upstage Assan or better still partner him up in strike but there is the begging question of where and what role Ali Sowe, another traditional goal-assassin, gets to figure who, like Barrow, is banging goals for fun. Talks of consistency, he cuts the epitome of that noun.
Ali holds record of the Gambian with the most goals in Europe in a single season and is being courted by a lot of top sides in Europe including Turkey’s Galatasary. So Who Do you think get to start among these?
