The Gambia national Under-20 team is currently the toss of the nation and the poster boys of the country’s international football image. The boys won the West African Zone A trophy in Senegal recently and earned a place in the African Under-20 championship, also called youth championship, taking place next month in Nouakchott, Mauritania.
Ahead of the tourney, the Gambian team, under coach Matar Mboge, is starting its preparations with intensive training at the Technical Centre from this week.
Though he now has two Wafu titles under his belt coach Matar Mboge still got some catching up to do. He needs to reach or pass the bronze medal won by late coach Peter Bonu Johnson in the 2007 edition in Brazzaville, Congo.
Reaching that mark would also mean qualifying for the world series later this year which Johnson’s boys also achieved in 2007 when they took on the world in Canada.
The 2021 Africa U-20 Cup of Nations, will take place from February 14 to March 4. It will be the 16th edition of the Africa U-20 Cup of Nations (23nd edition if tournaments without hosts are included). The biennial international youth football tournament is organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for players aged 20 and below. In September 2018, it was decided that the tournament would be hosted by Mauritania and this will be the first edition in Africa U-20 Cup of Nations to have expanded to 12 teams instead of eight. The top four teams of the tournament will qualify for the 2021 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Indonesia as the CAF representatives.. Mali are the defending champions. The qualifiers are now completed around the various zones in Africa and the following nations have qualified:
Host Mauritania, Morroco, Tunisia, The Gambia, Ghana, Burikana Faso, Uganda, Tanzania, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Namibia and Mozambique.