By: Omar Jatta

A host of Gambian football personalities will be lining up against other sport nominees in this year’s National Sports Award organised by the Sports Journalists Association of The Gambia [SJAG], which is scheduled to take place on Friday 22 April 2016, at Djembeh Hotel, formerly Jerma, from 8pm onwards.

This year’s award and gala dinner will be the seventh edition of the even since it’s inauguration in 2009. The event organised annually to celebrate the best Gambian sporting personalities within the country and abroad, and amongst this year’s nominees is FC Sion’s versatile Gambian defender/midfielder, Pa Modou Jagne alongside some local and foreign base football players, coaches and match referees including The Gambia’s two time winner of the prestigious African Best Referee Award, Bakary Papa Gassama, who is in line for the Sports Personality Of The Year Award, in recognition for his outstanding achievement as a referee on both national and the International stage.

The Switzerland based Pa Modou Jagne who will be lining up against Baboucarr Steve Trawally of Chinese Super League side Yanbian Fude FC and the Gambian Judo star, Faye Njie, who is based in Finland, is tipped to be the favourite for the Foreign Base Athletes Of The Year Award, having enjoyed a brilliant season in the Swiss Super League with FC Sion, and also impressing in the Europa League including his displays against Liverpool, which saw his team earn 1-1 and 0-0 draw against the English Premier League giants.

The nominees for the Local-based Athletes of the Year Award includes two footballers, Gamtel’s Yahya Ndong and Real de Banjul’s Abdoulie Jallow alongside athlete, Adama Jammeh.

In the Best Local-Based Female Athletes of The Year Award, a category which has been introduced for the first time, includes the Gambian female football star Adama Tamba of Red Scorpions, who has been a dominance force in the Women’s football.

Other football nominees includes three referees from the Men and Women’s Division. Mawdo Jallow, Sheriff Njie and Isatou Touray are the nominees vying for the Best Referee Of The Year Award.

The nominees for the Best Coach Award includes former national team player and the current coach of Gamtel FC, Mr Tapha Manneh whose team were crowned the league champions for the 2015 football season, alongside Abdoulie Ngum of Serrekunda West Basketball Team, and Jane Joof of Samger FC.

The teams nominated for Best Team category includes the incumbent Division one league champions, Gamtel FC, Serrekunda West Basketball Team and Samger FC.

The event which has drawn sponsorship from a score of businesses and organisations including The Gambia Football Federation, the GFF alongside MGI, PURA, GTBoard, GTBank and GCCI will also see certificates being awarded to former sport personalities, who have and continues to contribute in the development of sports in the country. Former Liverpool and Senegal star El-Haji Diouf is among the invited guests to the occasion. Diouf who is currently with Malaysian Premier League side Sabah FA also attended last year’s edition of the ceremony and he is expected to arrive in Banjul on Friday afternoon.

In revealing the nominees for this year’s award at a press briefing on Monday, SJAG’s President, Mr Musa Sise, promulgated the importance of the event, which he said has earned recognition and respect from the general public and had informed the press that the event is expected to be graced by prominent sports and non-sports personalities from all over the country. Mr Sise also pleaded for those invited to the event to try and be there on time, something that has always been a regular oversight in Gambian events.

“We are urging those given invitation to be there on time. We are also encouraging institutions that want to buy tables to come forward and do so,” said Sise.

The award ceremony is a significant step for Gambian Sports and the Sports Journalists in the country, who are sometimes criticised for not doing enough for the promotion of the national sports, whilst they’ve levied their own share of critcisms against those charged with the running of the country’s sports institutions, particualarly, football for not giving them the respect and recognition due on them. However, hopefully this will be a welcomed springboard to forster a cohesive relation between both parties, including the sportsmen, as Sports journalism forms an important part of modern sports. They are the interpreters of sporting events and the channels through which information flows, and thus deserve to be recognised as servants of the people, paired with the desire to influence the perceptions about sports.