Former Gambia Ports Authority and Real de Banjul coach Alagie Sarr has joined the coaching staff of The Gambia senior national team on a part-time basis.
Sarr has joined the Scorpions coaching staff as assistant to Belgian gaffer Tom Saintfiet with immediate effect.
The 55-year-old, regarded as the country’s most successful local coach, will replace Mattar M’Boge, who takes over his role as head coach of The Gambia U20 ahead of the 2019 WAFU Under 20 competition in Guinea Conakry.
Sarr, who started his professional football career in 1978, is a CAF B and C coaching license holder.
“Mr. Sarr’s appointment will be on engagement basis for the Scorpions where he is tasked to assist head coach Tom Saintfiet during the AFCON qualifiers. Until his appointment, Coach Sarr is also head coach of B/K Milan Football Club at the GFF League Division One,” part of The Gambia Football Federation’s (GFF) statement read.
Sarr’s appointment also saw the appointment of two new personnel in the Scorpion’s backroom staff as Belgian Tom Mertens has been appointed physiotherapist.
Mertens, according to the GFF, has a Masters of Science and specialised in manual therapy and sports physio. He worked for seven years for the Belgian FA and has worked for more than ten years at the Belgian Olympic Committee as physio of the National Hockey team; current World Cup Champions. He attended two Olympic Games; London 2012 and Rio 2016.
The FF also announced the appointment of Dr. Landing Jarju as the new Scorpions doctor, replacing Dr. Kalifa Manneh.
Jarju, who works at the Internal Medicine Department of the Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital (EFSTH) in Banjul, was formerly with the Home Based National Team (CHAN) that participated at the recent WAFU Cup of Nations 2019 in Thies, Senegal.
The Federation said the appointment of the two new personnel is necessitated by the Confederation of African Football’s quest to comply with the new “demand to having qualified medical practitioners with the national teams”.
The trio will join the Scorpions squad immediately and will commence their stint next month when the national team faces the Palancas Negras on November 13th in Angola before hosting the Leopards of DR Congo on November 18th in Group D of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.
