Pa Modou Ngum alias Base is due to return home today after two weeks of trials with a club called DPMM Football Club in Brunei Darussalam. This club which is owned by the prince of Brunei, Mr AL MUHTADEE BILLAH, was established in 2000.
The club joined the Malaysian premier league in the second division in 2005 and in their first attempt they gained promotion to the super league division one. Last year they finished third.

The team, however, had a poor campaign this year. Out of 17 games played they won only two, drew 8 and lost 7, scoring only 16 goals while conceding 18. Due to the poor run the head coach Iordan Stoykov is badly in need of a striker who can change the team’s poor scoring record.
The coach invited some strikers for trials among whom were Mr Charles Mani from Cameroon, Mr Rufai Monsuru from Nigeria, Alan Kardek de Sousa from Brazil and Pa Modou Ngum from The Gambia.  Pa Modou left on Monday 3rd march 2008 and arrived in Brunei on Thursday 6th march 2008.

Unfortunately, before Ngum’s arrival on Thursday, the head coach who invited him was sacked on Tuesday after the team failed to turn a 5/1 deficit score line in the FA Cup but managed a two all draw at home. This means that the club manager will be in charge until they can find a replacement.
Despite this upheaval, Pa Modou was given his first trial game on Friday, a day after he arrived in Brunei.  Playing on hardly any rest Pa Modou scored two goals and the team won for the first time this season by a two-goal margin. 4/2 was the final score line.

On Monday he had another trial match but this time, to my surprise, the manager decided to leave Pa Modou on the bench. He came in as a substitute with barely 20 minutes to play, again he scored and the team won by 3 goals to one.
Everybody at the club was impressed with his play thinking he was exactly what they need.  To everyone’s surprise however, on Tuesday morning Base was called to the office of the team manager where he was informed that he would be returning home on Monday as the club didn’t need his services.

Knowing the politics in football trials it was alleged that there was an exchange of money under the table with a Brazilian agent who accompanied his player to the trials in Brunei. Efforts were made to send a message to the club director but it seems all powers were vested on the team manager for decision making.
Gambians should be proud of Pa Modou Ngum for raising the country’s flag high in Brunei.  Among the four invited he was the best in terms of goal scoring. I would however like to extend my appreciation to everyone at Wallidan FC especially Mr. Conateh for his support. Wallidan facilitated everything just to try and help a player achieve his dreams. I am urging teams to emulate Mr Conateh in his concern and efforts to help his players.

In another development, GPA FC deterred two of its players from going for trials to Arsenal de Buenos Aries in Argentina. Alhagie Bun Gaye and David Sambou were scouted by an Italian working for the team as chief scout.
The agreement we had was to test both players with the club and if they were successful Bun would play with the team for one year then move to Germany. As for David, the team would sponsor Ports for five years.  After he matured he would spend two more years with Ports before moving to Argentina.
Just to remind you that apart from the big five in Europe, Argentina has the best domestic league on the planet and it is the most viewed league outside of the European market.

I was supposed to leave via Banjul Lagos Abuja to get our visas on the 3rd and leave for London/Paris/Ezeiza on the 4th as confirmed, but the GPA FC management agreed unanimously not to leave Bun Gaye behind because they must win to qualify in Abijan.  This means that we cannot go to Dakar for transit visas. GPA decided to take Bun Gaye and did made arrangements to meet us in Abuja on the third. We were left with no other option but to accept their decision and change our flight schedule for another possible route such as Abuja/Madrid/Ezeiza but unfortunately there was no flight available, which warranted our cancellation.

The team is very upset with Ports’ decision after making all the necessary arrangements to receive us on the 4th in Argentina. Now I am trying my utmost to get the deal on course again.