By Alhgaie Babou Jallow
Baboucarr Tambadou, born in Lamin Village, is son to a well known footballer who played for the Gambia national team. Former Real De Banjul and Elite United player in the Gambian premier league, Tambadou now plies his professional football career in Estonia.
Narrating the journey, he had this to say: “I have been playing football since I was a kid. I joined football academy when I was 10. I started playing for Real De Banjul in 2018. Things were going pretty well. I got invitation from Cyprus to go for a week’s trial. I came back to The Gambia because things didn’t work out”.
The Real De Banjul prodigy said the setback from the Cyprus trial did not stop him from chasing his dream of becoming a professional football player. He continued playing in the league but there was another setback for the lad. This time it was long term injury that would keep him from the ball for five months. “I never wanted to give up; I came out of the injury even stronger, and joined Elite United on loan,” Tambadou said. The young ambitious footballer would go on to score 9 goals and 12 assists for Elite United, helping the team finish second in that season of the first Division league.
This exceptional performance got some agents of the European leagues interested in his potential. “But unfortunately my club, Real, wanted me back.
Honestly, I didn’t want to go back, but they put some offers on the table for me, which I found too good to turn down. One of those offers was playing for Paide in Estonia”.
Baboucarr would later try his luck in the Estonian league, where he said he had a difficult start. “I arrived in Estonia in January 2022. The first six months were tough because we had to adapt to the European style of play but the second six months were amazing, because we went for qualifications and made it to the third stage, where we eventually got knocked out”.
The Real de Banjul product revealed that he had had calls to play for the cadet categories of the national team – both under-20 and under-23 but unfortunately he had been engulfed in an immigration matter - a visa issue - and that by the time it got resolved it was already late for him.
He however came back to Gambia for holiday, when a club called Sheriff expressed interest in him. “I involved my agent and they invited me. I had preseason with them and got loaned to them Paide for one year,” he said.
Baboucarr said after the first five months, which period went smooth for him, things turned sour because he was not having much playing time. He went go back to Paide after eight months and completed the season with them. He played 11 games and scored six goals and made two assists.
