INTERVIEWING FOOTBALL PEOPLE as a DISTRACTION from the INEVITABILITY of DEATH pt. 3: MATTAR M’BOGE
OBSESSION
Mattar M'Boge is obsessed with adverts. But don't take my word for it; hear it from the man himself. "I'm obsessed with adverts. I used to work in the advertising sector, so I will literally watch a program, won't even care what the program is, and wait for the adverts. And I'll say ‘that's a good one, that's not a good one.’ I'll be honest, some of the ones from the big names like Coca Cola, I end up thinking ‘oh, that could have been a little bit better,’ but I also have that background knowledge in terms of ‘maybe they didn't have enough budget for that...’ And I'll give them a score in my head. I know a lot of the time when they come on, that's when people will go and make a tea or whatever. I really like the Super Bowl ones. That's a yearly event for me. It's the most expensive ads, for 30 seconds you're paying so much premium on it so it really has to be quality. That's like the Oscars of ads."
Now, long time fans of Football vs. Oblivion (i.e. you've read my two previous interviews) will be aware that historically, my coverage of the inner workings of the advertising industry has been lacking. And alas, it will remain that way. The reason I'm bringing up that particular anecdote is because it neatly demonstrates an important aspect of Mattar M'Boge's character; that he seems to really care immensely about everything he turns his hand to. It's not enough for him to simply have worked in advertising in a previous life - to this day he is still diligently sitting down in front of the television, analysing adverts as they're aired, grading them in his head.
There is something that M'Boge is even more obsessed with than advertising; in keeping with the theme of this blog, it's football. This particularly obsession has taken him from a promising, respectable office job in London, and right back to the country of his birth, the smallest nation in mainland Africa. There, as head coach of the Gambia U20s, he's at the forefront of attempts to get an impoverished country of two million people, entirely surrounded by the far larger Senegal (one of Africa's most successful nations in football terms) punching above their insubstantial weight on the international footballing stage. And, unsurprisingly for someone as committed as him, he's doing a pretty good job.
BEGINNINGS
Mattar M'Boge was born in the Gambia in 1980, but moved to Saudi Arabia at the age of 4. "My Dad worked for the Islamic Development Bank. He was working in the Gambia for NGOs, and he was always someone who was in that space, so an opportunity came for him to have a job in Saudi. I didn't have any say in it... I couldn't say 'sorry Dad, I wanna stay!' So we all went, there were five kids, two parents, and we all went over to Saudi. Maybe if I'd moved later I'd have had a bit of trepidation, but as a kid you just think that all those things are normal, they're all part of life." M'Boge's memories of Saudi Arabia are complex; his obvious gratitude for his comfortable upbringing, and his love for football being nurtured, are tempered by the knowledge that large swathes of the population, including the entire opposite sex, were not able to share in his privileges.
With the Gambia having been part of the British Empire, and with the widespread availability of English football on television, it's no surprise where M'Boge earliest footballing memories come from. "I got access to English football. One of the first games I remember as a kid was the 1986 FA Cup Final. Liverpool vs. Everton. It was a red team vs. a blue team, and red was my favourite colour, so I supported the red team, and eventually Liverpool won the match. English football, even at that time, the mid 80s, late 80s, it was still widely followed and we were always able to watch English matches. I guess because Gambia was a British colony we always had an affinity with Britain, the UK, England, so following English football was something that was always natural as a youngster. "
Saudi Arabian's own footballing scene was regarded very differently. "Saudi football was more... you went to the stadium, but if there was a match from England on TV, everyone would watch that instead. Local football was so accessible, and back then satellite TV wasn't so prominent, so any time you saw a game was on, it was literally like ‘let's watch the game - let's not bother going to the local stadium.’ I used to race to get the papers for my Dad, because if I missed the match, the only way I would have any access was through that paper. It's just crazy the world now where you can access anything, but as a kid I just had to get the paper because I had no idea what the Liverpool score was! They'd played the day before, everyone knows what the result was, but I still had to read the paper because I didn't see the game. So those are some of the things that I suppose brought me closer to my passion for English football."
M'Boge captained his school team and attracted some interest from scouts for Saudi clubs, but nothing ever materialised. For a young man growing up in Saudi Arabia though, football wasn't just a means to an end, a career that could be pursued for fame and fortune; it was a fleeting grasp of freedom. "It's a huge sport there, despite the fact that it's a strict Muslim country. It's the strictest that I've lived in, definitely. Growing up, honestly, you don't know anything else. The discipline aspect was ingrained there, it sort of came without me having to think. Living in Saudi Arabia from the age of 4, when it was very strict - there was no going out and about there either, though I'm sure it's different now. At the time it was very strict, so you weren't allowed to do certain things. I went to a British school, so I was with expats as well and had access to their cultures. I was happy with the upbringing. As a child, you just accept things as how the world is. It's only when you go outside and hear everyone talking about women's rights, and you start getting educated on that aspect. But as a kid, you're just thinking 'where can I play football, who are my friends?' and trying to enjoy life as much as possible."
M'Boge also remembers experiencing the 1990 and 1994 FIFA World Cups, the window to the vast, outside world they provided, and in 1994 in particular, a rare excuse for nationwide expressions of uninhibited euphoria. "(In) the Italia '90 World Cup, we were following Cameroon, you know, as Africans we followed all the African countries. We had an affinity for Cameroon, but we always, always supported England. I remember the quarter final, Cameroon vs. England, every goal we were celebrating! It was just one of those games. And I remember England losing the semi final was just heartbreak. It felt like the worst thing in the world. And then when 1994 came, and England weren't there, that was even worse. Maybe it was because I had a group of expat friends and the majority of them were British, so we really felt it. But then everyone got behind the Saudi team. I remember, vividly, the whole country was behind the team. I remember Fuad Anwar, the number 6, the captain; Saaed El-Owairan; Sami Al-Jaber, the striker; Mohamed Al-Deayea, the goalkeeper... I remember these names because they were ingrained in me, they (Saudi fans) were doing everything to make sure we knew who the star players were. Watching the matches, there was lots of exuberance, any goal was like a huge achievement. So I definitely remember the '94 World Cup being a seminal moment in Saudi Arabian football."
By his early 20s, M'Boge had moved to the UK to study at Loughborough University, where he obtained two degrees, and took the first, tentative steps towards a life in football. As you'd expect though, his Saudi upbringing has had a lasting impact on his footballing career. "The good thing is the qualities, the discipline, how to behave in public, how to comport yourself, those are things that come naturally to me in terms of that reserve. Not being so flamboyant, in terms of showing off, that's something I've taken from Saudi culture. If I'd grown up in Gambia, maybe it would have been different. Maybe I'd be someone who's more flamboyant and extroverted, but I'm definitely someone who's more calm, more quiet, and that's because of the upbringing I had."
THE GRIND
Upon arriving in the UK, M'Boge began scrapping about in the muddy depths of English football, playing for Loughborough University. Competing in the United Counties League, current Loughborough players can look forward to away games against the likes of Leicester Nirvana, Anstey Nomads and Desborough Town, all of which sound like fictional teams to me. It isn't a particularly promising place to start a football career. But at least it was a start. M'Boge helped out off the field for Loughborough as well, and upon relocating to London started to coach at another non league outfit, Harrow Borough. He then inched slightly further up the pyramid with Hampton & Richmond. He compiled scouting reports for former Premier League players Phil Babb at Hayes & Yeading, and Marcus Gayle at Staines Town, both teams that were competing a mere two tiers below the Football League. Bit by bit, M'Boge was begin to build his reputation, and earn some contacts. The club he speaks most glowingly about are Barnet. "Super facilities, fantastic facilities. The Hive (Barnet's training ground) is one of the best facilities I'd say in London. The German national team, the Brazilian national team, they would come and train there if they were playing against England, and so we'd have access to their training... it was because everything was just there, just top, top facilities, different surfaces. I feel really privileged to have gone through there."
Something I was keen to ask Mattar about was the actual process of compiling a scouting report. Obviously, I am quite fond of football, but I find it easiest to interpret through the human drama element of it. When I watch a game it all seems like chaos to me, and the idea of producing any kind of tactical overview seems frankly terrifying. I am capable of noticing that, say, Pep Guardiola's teams can pass the ball a bit, but I was fascinated to hear about how you would go about breaking down a non league team's style of play, about which you might not have any preconceptions. What patterns would he look for? How would he make sense of all the running around?
"It's a lot of work, it's a lot of research as well, in terms of... before a match, I usually look at the team's results of the last three, four, five games. If it's a team that scores a lot of goals, then OK, they're an attacking team, and if they don't concede a lot, they like to shut up shop. And then when you're there live, you're looking at what they do when they have the ball, when they lose the ball, when they don't have the ball, and when they win the ball. I also look at what they do from set pieces. Most of the time, you can clearly see who are the outstanding players in terms of dictating the game. It's not just players who are on the ball, it could be defenders who, every time the other team are attacking, they're the ones closing the ball down, making the last ditch tackles. Those are the areas I try to define. In the experience that I've had, a tip that I can give you in terms of reading games with teams you don't know - watch what they do in the transitions, so when they lose the ball and win the ball. When they lose the ball, they can either be a team that goes and presses to win the ball, and if they are, they're a front foot team. When they have the ball, they're going to attack as well. If they lose the ball and they're a team that drops back and gets players behind the ball, that's a different mindset. It could be tactics on the day as well, there's all sorts of different things that come into it, but for me, those transitions, when they lose the ball and win the ball, that tells me an awful lot in terms of tactical approach of the team. Always the first five minutes of the match will tell you what they're trying to do."
M'Boge would do this in his spare time, while holding down his aforementioned job in advertising. It quickly became unsustainable to try and do both at the same time, and it left him at a cross roads. "I would literally come in every day as early as possible, start work by 7am, 8am. No one's in the office, it's just me and maybe one other colleague. And at 5pm, when we'd shut up shop, I'd walk out the door, and then it's like, 'where are you going?' And I'd say 'I've got to get the tube to where I do my coaching.' And they'd say 'what do you mean, football? Are you serious about that?' And I'd say ‘yeah, I am serious...’ you go to your work, your 9 til 5, you come in early, you don't miss any deadlines, everything is great, but just because of the culture, whatever you want to call it, the rat race, or... these are the things that happen, we're working in a competitive environment. Yes, we finish at 5pm, but people want to see you working overtime even if you're sat at your desk not doing anything. That's the culture." M'Boge is also frank about the quietly demoralising effect that the relative lack of black coaches had on his self belief. "Eventually I got a role at Barnet, but still there were just barriers, barriers. Everybody had positive feedback, saying ‘you're really good at this, really good at that,’ even parents of players, some coaches... but there was just that ceiling. And everything that's happening in the world now, it really resonates with me, because it wasn't overt, it wasn't people screaming this and that, but it was there in the background, and actually, the more you look around and ask 'are there opportunities there for people like me, in the roles I want to be in, and why am I struggling here still?'"
M'Boge suspected there was somewhere where his skillset would be in higher demand. But he hadn't lived there since he was four years old.
RELOCATION
Mattar didn't move back to the Gambia because he had a high powered, money spinning job lined up there. He moved because he thought there would be less barriers in the way of him achieving a coaching position, and because it would introduce him to a football scene very different to the one he'd left behind in the U.K. As an inveterate worrier, however, my first thought was ‘weren't you absolutely shitting yourself about this whole thing? About moving to a poor country in a different continent and not finding any work and watching your two careers in London drift further and further away from you?' I expressed my concerns to him, without using the word 'shitting' in order to maintain a veneer of professionalism.
"The cost of living is not as high (in the Gambia). £1 is 65 dalasi (the local currency). A pound goes a long way. I had some savings, some money in the bank... but as you said, it can be a concern. But I also was not just focusing on the football - well, I made the decision to come and focus completely on the football, but as a back up almost, I was using the experience I had in advertising and marketing, the degrees I had, I spoke with business owners and government people to test the waters just in case football didn't work out. But I'm humbled and thankful that everything worked out in the end... it was a huge risk, but when you take these huge risks, the rewards, they can actually pay off for you."
Before relocating, Mattar had e-mailed the technical director of the Gambian FA, to promote himself and offer his services. He was told to 'make yourself visible' when he arrived, and so he quickly found him working, on a voluntary basis, as a coach for the Gambia's U20 and U17 teams. The way his career has progressed from these inconspicuous beginnings indicates that the Gambia's young players were impressed by him, and the feeling was mutual. "Honestly, the talent level in Africa, it's phenomenal. It's extremely, extremely high. I'd put it on par at least with what I've seen in the UK, and if not, some teams are actually better than their counterparts. In terms of the tempo, the speed of play, the technical aspect, the physical aspect... everyone knows tactically there are still areas to improve on, but in my experience they still have a strong tactical level."
The real challenge, then, was coping with the limited facilities, and implementing a more serious and professional culture off the pitch. "There was that big sacrifice in terms of the facilities you have in the UK and in Europe, you definitely don't have them here in the Gambia. But that forces you as a coach to be more creative and be a lot more innovative in terms of your training, because you might not have access to 50 balls, as many balls as you want, as many bibs as you want, cones... these are all challenges, but I think they're normal, in terms of trying to progress and develop yourself as a coach."
When I spoke with Iffy Onuora a couple of months ago about his time managing the Ethiopia National Team, he lamented the somewhat relaxed attitude his players and staff had to the concept of turning up anywhere on time. It's interesting to note that, on the opposite side of the continent, M'Boge has experienced the same issues. "When I arrived at training, I'd be the first one there. I wanted to make a good impression, because I was coming with the philosophy I'd had in the UK where if you come on time, you're late. It's actually better to come 15 minutes early. But the Gambian culture is, if it says 9am, you come at 9:30. So the head coach would arrive at 9:30, but I'd set up the drills, the warm-up already, so we'd already been training for 20, 25 mins. So the head coach would come on, and, he wouldn't tell me but he would tell the other coaches... 'wait, why did he start? Why didn't he wait for me?' But it was sort of like, well, it just how I felt. If you're told to start training at 9am, you start training at 9am, even if the boss isn't there. Doing the warm-ups... again, that was something that was alien to them. 'Yes, I know I'm late, but you should still wait for me.' So those are some of the things I've tried to ingrain in the coaches, it's important to have that discipline, because if these players become professional footballers, they're going to learn from you. They have to know that if their coaches tell them 9am, they turn up at 9am. They can't turn up at Barnet or Arsenal 30 minutes late. Once you explain to them in that way, honestly, they start to pick it up, and they say 'OK coach, I'm going to be there early.' So those are some of the things I'm glad I've transferred to the boys."
BANJUL
Having successfully 'made himself visible' with the Gambia's youth set-up. M'Boge was offered his first taste of senior management with one of the country's biggest clubs, Real de Banjul. "They were in a bit of trouble at the time," he recalls. "They were going to win the league, but they'd had a six point deduction, and were in 4th. They'd had a Belgian coach, and he'd gone back to Belgium because he'd just had enough. It's understandable. It's normal, in African football, some of these things." Banjul turned to him in what by their standards was a crisis, but their recent history had demonstrated them to a successful, attractive, and relatively wealthy club. There's a clue in their name, attempting to conjure the glamour and prestige of Real Madrid. "As for why Real is the biggest, having worked in marketing in that capacity, it's that branding, where they've said it enough times, 'we're the biggest club, we're the best club...’ Real, they sell a lot of players, a few prominent players in the national team came from Real, so as a youngster you think that your best opportunity to go abroad is to go and play for that team. They haven't won the league since I was there, which was 2014. So, yes, they have a very competitive team, but the focus is more on that marketing, that branding, bringing exposure to those players from outside, and that's how they're able to say they're the biggest and the best. They've got a training ground, they've built their new facility, so it's not necessarily the following. There are more well followed clubs, Wallidan for example, there's a team called Brikama United, they're community teams, but Real is more of an RB Leipzig of the Gambia, where they're not really liked because of the whole money thing, money doping, whatever you want to call it."
Nationwide, the enthusiasm for the Gambia's own domestic game pales in comparison to the allure of Europe's top leagues, reflecting a dispiriting situation across swathes of the world's developing countries. Perversely, however, the effect that the pandemic has had on Gambian football hasn't been entirely adverse. "In terms of the COVID situation, people have been starved of football. Not having a chance to watch a game live. So what's happened now is that any time people have the chance to go to the stadium or the park and watch a game live, people are taking it. Even though we're in the COVID situation, we've actually contained the virus quite well here, it's (football) actually much more well attended than it was previously. In previous matches you could literally count the people - 'there's a group of ten over there, a group of ten over there.' Only the big games, if there's two big rivals playing then yeah, maybe you'll see some people in the stadium, but now, it doesn't matter who's playing, everyone's coming to watch, because people have been starved of football."
On that note, I thought it would be interesting to hear from Mattar what the matchday experience is actually like in the Gambia, considering that most of us will never take in a game there. "In terms of fans coming, and the atmosphere, you'll find there's a lot of neutrals there. They don't really follow one team or another, so they come as neutrals, and what they want to see is good football. If you happen to play possession based, attacking, front foot football, they'll start supporting you, and that's how people gain supporters. There's a team called Hawks where that's been their modus operandi, they haven't had league success, they haven't had cups, but everyone knows Hawks play possession based football, similar to the Barcelona, tiki-taka style that everyone loves to watch on TV. So they have a lot of followers just because of that. So when you go to a ground, that's all that people are waiting for. It's not so partisan in terms of a Sheffield derby, or a Merseyside derby, North London derby, it doesn't get to those scales at all. When they see a good team playing well, they'll start supporting you, and that's how teams pick up fans. In terms of the atmosphere, it's a completely different level. There is that passion missing, because one of the biggest things about English football is the fans are so passionate, and players from all over the world, everyone wants to play there, everyone wants to coach there, because of that passion from the fans. In the Gambia, it's more laid back, they support Premier League teams, La Liga teams, and they're more passionate about them than local clubs. They'd rather get in a fight about why Arsenal lost than about their own local team. They wouldn't bother with that, but they'll get into fisticuffs if someone says Arsenal are a rubbish team!"
Swansea City fans may be pleased to hear that, due to the adventures of Modou Barrow at the Liberty Stadium, their club is treated with an affection in the Gambia that Cardiff City can only dream of. "When he was in the Premier League, because he was the first Gambian to score in the Premier League, we had a lot of Swansea fans. There were people with Swansea kit, I don't know where they got them from. I think the club heard about them and sent over a crate of Swansea material. When he went to Reading, it was different. The Championship's not as followed, it's a completely different world. The Championship is almost non existent in comparison to the Premier League. It's the Premier League, or La Liga, or Serie A. Probably the most prominent now, because Modou's gone to South Korea, is Musa Barrow. He's playing for Bologna, and they've also got a strong following, but it's not as fervent as it would be if it was Swansea. There aren't as many Bologna shirts! Musa was linked in the press with Real Madrid, but sometimes these stories are just people trying to put things out there, and also the club he played for, there's a minimum release clause for him, so they're already trying to work out the sell on, because they know that's how they'll make their money.
As was touched on earlier in this whistlestop tour of Gambian domestic football, M'Boge was a success at Real de Banjul, shrugging off their point deduction to win the league in 2014. His future expeditions with the Gambia's national youth teams would not come as an unpaid member of the backroom staff. He'd be the head coach, and on the verge of making history...
TRIUMPH/HEARTBREAK
As manager of the Gambia U20s, Mattar M'Boge has won the 2018 West African Football Union U-20 Tournament, the first U20 trophy that the Gambia have ever won. He replicated the feat at the end of last year, and simultaneously qualified 'the Young Scorpions' for the U20 African Cup of Nations in February. Before hearing about any of that though, I wanted to get some hot admin gossip. What, exactly, goes into the process of compiling a national squad, especially for a country like the Gambia which operates on limited resources?
"I'm blessed that I have those administrative skills, the fact that I've worked in the ad industry has given me that. When I started working with the U17s, I had a scouting list, in terms of watching schools football, third division, academy football, so I had a database of players. I had their dates of birth, so some of these players I've been coaching in the U20s, I've been following them for five years. And anybody who's outside of that I'm reluctant to look at because of the administrative issues, age issues. It can never be perfect, but the fact that I saw you five years ago playing schools football as a 15 year old, five years down the line, fine, yeah, you can come into my U20s team, I've seen your development. It's a really laborious process, and again, if I can go to what I think has been the secret of our success, teams have been scouted thoroughly, it's not once, not twice, it's three or four times. And there's coaches who can be very lazy and will not go and watch matches and will wait to be given a player, will wait for the fans to say ‘this player! This player!’ But that player might be great for the fans, because he does lots of flicks and tricks, but he might not work in your system. So I try and go out and see which players fit into our philosophy. In terms of how I want to play, what our vision of football is, we just recently came up with an over-arching national team philosophy, but I wrote that document, so it was pretty much how I see football. We're looking for players who fit that criteria, in terms of defenders, goalkeepers being good on the ball, because we want to play out from the back. Sometimes, when you're scouting, you can see great players, but if you don't have these differentiators, to say ‘this player is better with his feet than this other player,’ you get stuck. I really do think there are some coaches who don't want to take that time out, because it's a lot of work. During the lockdown, I spent so many hours on YouTube, and scouting platforms, looking at videos of players, because I wasn't able to see them live. I had a longlist of 100 players, brought that down to 50, then 30. And as training goes on, I'm someone who doesn't shy away from making a decision in terms of dropping a player. I'll come and explain to you, ‘sorry, it's too early for you,’ or ‘these are the things you need to work on.’ So I'm very quick to do that. I think it's another thing that other coaches, they'll keep 30 or 40 players together for so long, and it doesn't give individual players the chance to grow. It's a ruthless business, it's difficult, because you're telling somebody, just like in the academy system, they're not going to become a professional footballer. You're taking away their dreams. But I know that in coaching, that's what needs to be done. And there are times when a player you've let go makes the progression, or has shone in another team. But you just have to do the best you can."
The 30 person squad that M'Boge took to the U20 African Cup of Nations in Mauritania was dominated by domestic based players. However, it also featured representatives from West Ham Utd, MK Dons and Doncaster Rovers in the UK, Bologna in Italy, Volendam in the Netherlands, and a Senegalese outfit called Cayor Foot. And once you've finally assembled a team like that, you've actually got to go and try and win the tournament. Mauritania is not a country that has a great reputation internationally. The one thing I knew about it was that it was the last country in the world to abolish slavery, only getting round to it in 1981 (!!!). Alas, it's a grim reality of geopolitics that certain nations are going to be handed opportunities to prove themselves on the international stage that they haven't really earned, and at least in terms of organising the U20 Cup of Nations, Mauritania did a fine job. A plane was chartered to transfer the Gambia's players and coaching staff from the capital to the city of Nouadibou, where they would be based for the duration of the tournament. That kind of experience is one that a lot of international squads would take for granted, but for M'Boge's Young Scorpions, it was a confidence boost in and of itself. "When we went to a regional tournament in Senegal, we took a bus, because it was only six hours, and the bus broke down, and everyone was shattered. It affected our first game. To go from regional to continental level, and see this treatment straight away, it really motivates the players to think this is the biggest tournament of their lives."
Indeed, M'Boge's players would turn out, if anything, to be too motivated. "The negative aspect I guess is that they all want to play. They all want that opportunity to shine. They all want to be given the opportunity to be scouted so they can go abroad and sign a professional contract for their families, and to make a better life for themselves." M'Boge notes that in Saudi Arabia, where he spent his childhood, the culture is very different, and it may actually inhibit that nation's footballing success. "In terms of what I saw in Saudi, the hunger isn't there. If you're not a footballer, you'll still be well off. There's not that desire. It's the complete opposite in the Gambia. Football is seen as a way out, and a way to help your family, so you take that pressure on yourself. You're not just playing for yourself, male or female, you're playing for your family. And you know if you can get a professional football contract, you can take care of all of them. Because they're not getting taken care of now. Times are hard. Some of the players are really... it brings you to your knees when you hear their stories and their backgrounds. I've seen the homes that they come from. It makes sense then what they do on the football pitch. I think in Saudi Arabia, and the kids that I played with, I really got the impression that yes, they loved football, but it was like a hobby for them. And the culture was more about becoming a doctor or a lawyer or a successful businessman. Following the family business. Football was where you found more of that debauchery, for example. It's completely against what the Saudi principles are. So those are some of the things that would hold them back. They're not as hungry, definitely, as some of the players I've seen."
The Gambia made a slow start to the U20 Cup of Nations, losing 1-0 to Morocco and conceding an 88th minute equaliser in a 1-1 draw with Tanzania. It left them needing a victory against three time champions Ghana in their final group game to stand a chance of progressing, and they were able to come from a goal down to edge the match 2-1, and qualify for the quarter finals in second place. In the quarters, they waltzed past the Central African Republic with a 3-0 win, setting up a semi final rematch with Ghana, who had also progressed in the 12 team tournament by virtue of being one of the best third place sides. Alas, this time Ghana came out on top 1-0, and would go on to beat Uganda 2-0 in the final to win the tournament. The Gambia got the consolation prize of a bronze medal after beating Tunisia on penalties in the third place play-off. There should have been a far more significant consolation as well - in ordinary circumstances, the semi finalists from the U20 Cup of Nations also book their place in the FIFA U20 World Cup, which was due to take place in Indonesia this year. As you may have noticed, however, we aren't living in ordinary circumstances.
"I remember vividly the day was in late December, the day we got the news about the U20 World Cup. Honestly, I was devastated. It was really a blow. And my first thought was 'I bet we get to the semi finals, and we're not able to go to the World Cup,' and that's exactly what happened. We tried to talk to the players beforehand, and we're still talking with some of the FIFA representatives as well, cos Infantino turned up (to the tournament) cos the CAF elections were happening. So we were trying to get messages across to say to reconsider because, maybe every other continent can handle the blow, but for Africa in particular, especially for the four countries, ourselves, Ghana, Tunisia and Uganda, it's a huge blow. We're still trying to lobby and see, if the U20s can't happen, if there's a tournament that can happen in its absence, so we've said that to the players. But to be honest, it's a huge psychological blow, and they really felt it after the semi final with Ghana, when they knew they weren't going into the final. Because, OK, we had the 3rd place play off, but to know we had the opportunity to prepare for a World Cup? So there was a bit of gloom about it. We tried to lift the boys as much as possible to see if an alternative can be found. The likes of Saudi Arabia, for example, the likes of Qatar, maybe can they host a mini tournament? It might not be a FIFA sanctioned tournament, but it might still be a platform. They can invite a few different countries, show the games on TV. For this generation, it's their only chance. The vast majority of the boys, apart from maybe five out of a squad of 28, they'll all graduate. They'll never have the chance to play in an U20 World Cup for the rest of their lives. And they worked on the pitch to qualify and earn their spot. So it's a tough one. It was honestly devastating. Yes, personally, but I felt it more for these players, because in another two years I can get another chance to coach at a World Cup, I can go to another environment. There's no time limit on me. I really felt it for these boys, because this is the only opportunity they will have. It's up to the powers that be. Unless they want to come up with a U22 World Cup in two years time... they could have postponed it to next year. I don't know if it's because it's in Indonesia and there's lots of cases there, and Peru for the U17s. Yes, we completely understand the COVID situation but the fact the Champions League is going on in Europe and in Africa, the FIFA Club World Cup happened, it was a bit baffling for us. Even some media interviewing the players didn't understand why all these other competitions are happening. And it's more important than first team competitions, because it's the future of football, and the future of football competition is cancelled. But we're still trying to see if something can be done, and if there can be something in the absence of the U20 World Cup."
PURPOSE
I think a lot of us go through life trying to distract that nagging voice in our minds that wonders what the point is. If Mattar M'Boge experiences this same kind of inner doubt, that creeping ennui, it certainly doesn't affect him outwardly. But I wanted to know, particularly having had the prospect of coaching at the most prestigious youth football tournament in the world kicked out from underneath him, what his ambition is for Gambian football. As I mentioned right at the start of this article, the Gambia is the smallest country on the African mainland. It is completely encompassed by Senegal, who can call on players from most of Europe's top leagues, including one of the best of the last decade in Sadio Mane. Realistically, with these kind of geographic limitations that are not going to change any time soon, what can the Gambia achieve on the continental, or even global stage?
"I think the goal in terms of qualification for major tournaments is there. We've got a game today (the 25th March, 2021) against Angola which is maybe the biggest game in Gambian history, because if we win there and results go our way we can qualify for our first senior Africa Cup of Nations. Having a great record at youth level, we just haven't managed to transfer that to senior level. So hopefully that happens today, if not we have another opportunity on Monday against the D.R. Congo. So the objective is to get to that first competition. I saw that Guinea qualified for the 12th time yesterday. Ghana had made 12 appearances at the U20 AFCON - it was our third. Ghana won it for the fourth time, so with the likes of them, Senegal, Nigeria... they don't have those problems. What we have to focus on is making our talent pool as big as possible, so looking at players both inside and outside of the Gambia. We've actually got over 100 players playing in professional teams in Europe, at different levels, in different tiers, that are bi-nationals. Maybe they were born in Denmark or Sweden but have a Gambian father or mother. Part of our recruitment policy is to recruit these bi-nationals. We actually have a player who played for the England U17s in our squad, and finally made the decision to say ‘I want to play for the Gambia.’ We did all the paperwork, the F.A. had to release him and all those things, but that's the first time ever we've had such a high profile switch of nationality. There's a player also who used to play for the Swedish youth teams who's now saying he's ready to play for us. Just to give you a past history, the likes of John Carew, Joe Gomez at Liverpool, Joshua King, Mathias Jorgensen, these are all players who would have actually qualified to play for the Gambia. But obviously they'd prefer to play for Norway, England, those nations - it's football. But, we had a pool of 30 players who had played for other nations at U20 level, but were still eligible to play for the Gambia. We managed to get three out of the thirty! But it's something at least. And the other ones will come on board once they see the Gambia qualifying for competitions, going to AFCONs, World Cups. Because England are doing that, Sweden, Norway, so why would you turn that down to go somewhere where you might not have that opportunity? So once we start going to tournaments... we'll never have the numbers, but we're just trying to increase that quality, so that every time there's a national team selection, it's a headache, because there's so many players they could pick, and that's what we're trying to work towards. That's what we can control on our side, results, qualifications. In terms of recruitment, we're trying to work on quality, because we're never going to have the numbers."
The Gambia, you'll hopefully be pleased to hear, did indeed beat Angola 1-0 in the game Mattar mentioned, thus booking their place at the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations. For a nation of their size, it is a marvelous achievement. It would be wrong not to mention the name Tom Saintfiet, who made a cameo appearance in the interview I did with Iffy Onuora earlier this year. The Belgian has made a career out of significantly overachieving with underpowered African nations, and as head coach of the Gambia's senior men's side, taking them to their first continental tournament is maybe his best ever feat. At the same time, you have to hope that M'Boge gets a significant amount of credit as well, for his role in bringing through young Gambian players over the past 8 or 9 years. As M'Boge himself has attested to, success at international level for these players is almost literally a matter of life and death for them, and their extended families. For the luckiest and most talented, soccer is a route out of poverty and into a life beyond the wildest dreams of most Gambians. M'Boge's role is facilitating these opportunities, taking the raw potential of his young players, highlighting their strengths, moulding them into a serious and disciplined collective, and getting them across the eyeballs of people who can rescue them from a life of insecurity at a stroke... if any job in sport is profound and vital, it's surely that.
M'Boge is a Muslim, although his religious journey has been as you might expect from someone who was brought up in Saudi Arabia, but moved to the UK as a young man. "I'm somebody who used to be very very strict. For example, there was a time when I was in the school team, we came up after a game, and we were chowing down on the food and it was sausages. And someone said 'oh, that's pork.' And there were times when I thought that if I ate pork, I would die. That's what would happen to me. Because I was strict. But then once you're out of that culture, you open your eyes a little bit, and also as an adult you're freer to do things, so I can confess that was liberating in being able to make my own decisions. You're living in a country where it's the law that you cannot do certain things, but then you go to the UK where everything was open, I was like a kid in a shop at times. So, definitely religion has played an important part in my life, 100%. But I can definitely say that I have that balance now. I used to be as strict as you can get growing up in Saudi, then obviously as you get older you see the world, and I can confess that September 11th had a big impact on me. The fact that it was people under the banner of my religion that did those atrocities, it created challenges in me. But I think these are things that everyone goes through in life."
While I of course understand the point he's making, not everyone has to go through a spiritual crisis in their lives, triggered by the most significant event in the history of the post Cold War world. M'Boge is great to talk to, friendly and energetic and brimming with enthusiasm for football and his life within it. Yet there are also those moments of understatement that I think are common in the people I've got to talk to for this blog. My main motivation for starting this project was the belief that, away from the high melodrama of the wealthiest, most ubiquitous football teams and leagues, there are so many people in football leading the most fabulously interesting and strange lives under a thin guise of relative normality. Only just into his 40s, M'Boge is still incredibly young for a coach. He is, in many respects, still taking his first steps in his profession. He is not doing a glamorous job for a world renowned team. And yet even now, his achievements in football are utterly unique. And there's still more of them to come.
If you enjoyed this article and would like to support offbeat, long form football journalism, I have a Ko-fi page where you can donate $3 to keep me in sweet, sweet mochas. Please head to https://ko-fi.com/footballvsoblivion. You can also follow Football vs. Oblivion on Twitter @oblivion_vs, and Mattar M’Boge @mmboge80. And there’s a Facebook page as well, @footballvsoblivion.
