By Yero S. Bah
Football is no doubt a lucrative business and changes the lives of many African footballers and their families; but also boosts the economy of countries around the world.
According to experts of the game, most African youth are dreaming of becoming international football icons to be able to change their lives and that of families, and young Gambian footballers are not exempted in these dreams.
Mr. Noam Shamah is a Sport Scouting Agent from Israel who runs the ‘FnA-Friends and Africa Scouting Group’, conducting frequent scouting of U18 (Under-18) footballers in Africa as well as elsewhere from around the world, for the Israelite U18 Football Clubs.
He explained that most of the Under-18 players he took to Israel are from Ghana, Ivory Coast and some East African nations. “Basically, my project is taking young players to U18 clubs in Israel and after one season if they are good, they can be promoted to senior side,” the Scouting agent disclosed.
According to him, the best footballers he took to Israel are Gideon Akouawa from Ghana to Beitar Jerusalem U18–he is playing successfully for Kfar Kasem Senior Side–; Eduardo Guerrero from Panama to Maccabi Tel Aviv as well as Prince Yeboah; Sampson; Romaric; and Saikouba from The Gambia.
Even though the football agent never visited the Gambia, he was able to take Saikouba to Israel, describing him as ‘great striker’ who plays for one of the U18 Israelite clubs.
However, he highlighted some of the challenges involved in the scouting of African players. Admitting it is not easy at all to succeed, but Shamah believes work hard and patience, with the addition of motivation, are the magic.
He noted that lack of videos for African players hampers football scouts to be able to analyze footballers as one can hardly offer them to clubs without such videos. Sometimes he has to create videos by visiting these countries to cover games of potential players or at times, he sends representatives, as he indicated.
