By Olimatou Coker
After clinching the Gambian football league title for the second time in a row, Real de Banjul on Wednesday packed its family of players of all categories, officials and fans to a day’s retreat at Sanyang village to reflect on their 14th title and set the future on course.
William Abraham, club president welcomed the gathering by congratulating the Real family on winning the title back to back.
“We would have loved to win the double but even league is a great achievement,” he said.
But he reminded the young members of the family that the Real de Banjul story did not start as smooth as it looks like today.
“The club to get to where it is today taking over 40 years enery and financial resuscitation. We used to struggle training because we did not have a bus, a training ground, equipment, or camping house and it was extremely tough for all of us”, Willy recalled.
Today, President Abraham reported, Real has 40 staff members in gainful employment at the club. “We are also the leaders when it comes to exporting players to the international market and transforming young lives and turning the dreams of the younger generation to reality. We are already on a sound footing to embrace a professional league statue as we are now among the most organized clubs in Africa,” Willy said.
He said the future plan is, hopefully in the next two years, to expand the club and its staff population will subsequently grow to reach 100 employees and to be able to house at least between 50 to 100 kids that will be given academic and technical skills education.
Bakary Jammeh vice president of the club, said the retreat is a very important event in their calendar.
“In this gathering today for the first time we have nearly every component of the club present. The Japanese say a vision without an action is just a daydream, and action without vision is a nightmare”, Jammeh inspired the audience.
