The Gambia will be seeking to book their second FIFA U-20 World Cup place when the TotalEnergies U-20 Africa Cup of Nations kicks off in February in Egypt.
The Young Scorpions will be making their fourth appearance at the continental jamboree with the ambition of at least booking a semi-final spot to qualify for the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Indonesia.
The West Africans have a very good record at the U-20 AFCON as they twice won bronze in their three previous appearances.
“We have a target. We want to qualify to the FIFA U-20 World Cup, and we are working very hard on it.” – Abdoulie Bojang
They finished third in their debut appearance at the 2007 edition in the Republic of Congo before a group stage exit in South Africa four years later. They returned to the tournament in 2021 to equal their best finish with bronze after missing the previous four editions.
Abdoulie Bojang’s charges qualified to this year’s tournament after losing the final of the WAFU-A zonal qualifiers in Mauritania to their arch-rivals Senegal.
“We have a target,” head coach Abdoulie Bojang told CAFOnline. “We want to qualify to the FIFA U-20 World Cup, and we are working very hard on it.”
Bojang starred for the Scorpions as midfielder during his playing days before leading his boyhood club Steve Biko to their famous title winning season in 2013.
The ex-elegant maestro has started preparing his charges for the biennial tournament with weekly training sessions at the Gambia Football Federation Technical Training Centre in Yundum.
“We want to have a training camp in Morocco from 1 February – we want to bring in four foreign based players,” Bojang told CAFOnline.
“The Gambia is not a small country in this competition so we will do all we can to qualify the team to the World Cup.”
The Gambia have been drawn against Tunisia, Benin and Zambia in Group C and will be based in Alexandria for the tournament to be held from 19 February to 11 March 2023.
(CAFOnline)
