Kanteh and Gambia: from the grotesque debut to the solidarity project that unites him with his roots
First Iberdrola
The Sporting de Huelva player, international with the African country, is carrying out a solidarity project that seeks to help boys and girls by providing them with resources
Fatoumata Kanteh i Cham was born 24 summers ago in Banyoles, a municipality of just over 20,000 inhabitants of Girona. Her father, Mussa, is from Gambia, and her mother, Mokeh, from Senegal, so she has three nationalities and a range of possibilities to be an international that she ended up reducing because of the desire to defend her roots. her.
"I have never considered playing for Spain. They have not called me nor have I seen myself prepared because the team has a great team. Also, despite the fact that I have been playing here all my life, there are referees who still speak to me in English", account between laughs. "I take it with humor and sometimes I even answer them in Catalan," continues the protagonist, who has played for UE Porqueres, DUX Logroño and Sporting de Huelva, where she is in her third season and the culprit of the strong Andalusian accent of she.
A journalist made the dream possible
On October 25, she made her debut with the Gambia national team after a grotesque bureaucratic journey. She had been trying to contact the Federation through email for some time to tell them about its existence, but it was through a Nigerian journalist (Samuel Ahmadu) that she managed to get in touch with the sports management of the national team. They exchanged emails, calls, videos and finally the call for the African Cup qualifying matches arrived.
Fatou had to pay for his one-way ticket to her country because the Federation did not trust it to be a hoax. She has already suffered the fraud of more than one player who has passed as a professional soccer player playing in another country and in the end she has proven to be a scammer. "I wanted to play so much that I didn't care. Besides, they were concentrated in Liberia and the most operative thing was for me to go directly to the second leg. I took the first flight I could and they paid me later by presenting the invoice", he says. downplaying it.
historic debut
She made her debut at the Bakau Independence Stadium against Sierra Leone (1-1) starting and scoring in the 23rd minute for Kanteh. "I will remember that day for the rest of my life," recalls Fatou. "It was a day full of emotions and a better than expected result," she says. "No Gambian player had ever achieved what I did before by scoring in my debut. It was a spectacular experience that I hope will continue in the next FIFA windows," she underlines. Gambia will face Cameroon in the month of February (14 and 23 of this month) in the second round of the qualifying phase of the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations.
After that game, the president of the Federation (Seedy Kinteh) came down to congratulate the team in the locker room and had words of thanks for a Fatou who hopes to have written the first page of a book with many chapters. "My father's family were very happy to hear that he was going to play for Gambia. They told all their friends and acquaintances that Mussa's daughter was going to play for the national team. They were proud of me," he says. "Women's sport, and more specifically football, has evolved a lot in Gambia. When I was little, if they saw you with a ball, you were a tomboy and a target for insults and disqualifications, but fortunately society is changing and we footballers are already accepted in the environment", he sums up.
A trip that changed everything
Fatou's connection to Gambia goes beyond her surname and her origins. And so she wants it to remain. That is why a year ago he started a project that aims to create a Soccer School in the town of her father (Dibirou) and start a collaboration with a team from the capital (Banjul) and help them with clothing and material. sports. "The idea is to travel there next summer to bring them all the material that I am collecting. Sporting de Huelva and the colleagues that I have and have had are helping with what they can, both sportswear and streetwear, but everything is welcome", underlines.
A trip she made when she was younger with her siblings to Dibirou accentuated Fatou's caring gene. "When you are there you realize what is truly important. There are many children who eat breakfast without knowing if it will be the only meal they can make that day; who have inherited clothes torn from a thousand places because they have no option to buy another; who see in football an escape valve from the reality they live in," he lists. "I have been able to live with them, soak up their culture and their desire to live. I want to help them as much as possible and I think that through football it is a good tool," she highlights.
Present at Sporting de Huelva
Kanteh's present is Sporting de Huelva, a team in which she is enjoying her third season and where this season she has played 13 games, 1,045 minutes and has scored a goal. "I had a period of adaptation because I noticed the change from Logroño to Huelva in all aspects: the environment, the gastronomy, the weather... it's tremendously hot here, but I've gotten used to it," she says with a laugh.
The team is currently fourteenth with 9 points at the end of the first round, four points away from the relegation zone. "The first round has left us with a bittersweet taste. We have drawn too many games (9). It is true that we have not lost many, but it is costing us to get the first victory of the season. We are working on it and it will surely come soon", summarizes. At 24 years old and already an international with Gambia, Fatou is a player to watch closely.
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