Abdoulie Bojang named Gambia U-17 coach

Gambia Under 17 coach Abdoulie Bojang

Head coach Abdoulie Bojang of Steve Biko has been named as the new Gambia U-17 boss ahead of the 2015 African Under-17 Championship qualifier.

Lie Bojang was appointed the nation’s U-17 gaffer after a recommendation by the Gambia Football Federation.

Bojang’s appointed to the position is credited with his success at club level with Steve Biko after he guided them to their first domestic title in the 2012/2013 league season.

But the Steve Biko gaffer faces a mammoth task of guiding the team to qualify to the 2015 U-17 Championship to be hosted in Niger with Gambia playing host to Guinea in the first round qualifier in June.

Gambia, two time winners of the U-17 Championship, will play the first leg of the tie in Banjul in the weekend of 13, 14 and 15 June 2014 before travelling to Conakry for the second leg two weeks later.

The winner of the tie will play the 2013 hosts and fourth place finishers Morocco, in the second round of the qualifiers.

Gambia decided to withdraw its Under-17 team for the qualifiers of the 2013 African Under-17 Championship in Morocco, thereby allowing Ghana to progress to the next stage of the qualifiers.

The country was withdrawn from the qualifiers after the then normalization committee felt that a team was unable to be raised in time to face Ghana in September 2012 but the Minister for Youth and Sports Alieu K. Jammeh felt otherwise, explaining that the decision to pull out was to end the trend of using over-aged players to play in previous competitions.

Gambia is one of the most successful teams in the U-17 Championship, winning it twice in 2005 and 2009 but it has since failed to make an appearance in the tournament.

The 2015 African U-17 Championship will be hosted by Niger with four teams qualifying to the 2015 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Chile.