Mamadou Futty Danso, a former youth player with the Gambia Ports Authority FC has signed a professional contract with the United States Major League Soccer side, DC United, from the college system in US, Observer Sports has reliably gathered.

Danso has been in United States  pursuing a career in both academic and soccer, and now he will join three of his countrymen in Sainey Nyassi, Sanna Nyassi and Abdoulie Kenny Mansally in the premier tier of American football.  The youthful defender was invited by the MLS club on February 13 from his Southern Polytechnic college soccer team where he had made a name himself.

He was flown to Washington a few days later for a try-out before being handed a permanent deal much to delight of the his coach at the Georgia-based college. “He is probably the best athlete I have ever coached,” said the Southern Polytechnic soccer team coach  Kom Momeni.

Momeni said Danso is a very talented defender but also can be an offensive weapon. This past fall, Danso’s junior year, he scored 19 goals and had six assists. “He has a certain soccer savvy to him that the average 22- or 23-year-old doesn’t have coming out of college,” he said. Momeni met Danso while on a recruiting trip when he was an assistant coach at Coastal Carolina.

Danso ended up enrolling at North Carolina Wesleyan, but he transferred to Southern Poly when Momeni was named coach of Poly’s new program. “He came in very raw,” Momeni said. “We knew he was good. We didn’t know he was that good. He just got better and better as time went on.” He led the Southern States Athletic Conference in goals, shots, shots on goal and points per game. He was among the top five nationally in each of those categories.”

In December, DC United brought Danso up for a combine. They liked what they saw and signed him after a few more meetings. His father always told him to put school before soccer, but after he got picked up, his father told him to pursue his soccer career. “I promised him to finish school one day,” Danso said.