When all gets down to business at the Stade de l’Unité Maghrébine Sunday, he will be one of those looking to wow.
Attacker Yusupha Njie has his sights gazing on the Caf Confederation Cup. The 22-year-old box of tricks will be hoping to aid Moroccan champions FUS Rabat accomplish the setout target of clinching the Confederation Cup for the second time after their first in 2010.
But first he and his teammates must jettison off Algerian juggernauts MO Béjaïa beginning Sunday in Kabylie, province of Bejaia, to set them on the path of scooping the gong.
MO Béjaïa reached this stage after sending Ghana’s Madema packing with Chadian goal-getter Morgan Betorangal’s 52nd minute goal doing the damage.
And Yusupha knows it wouldn’t be an easy ride when his visiting FUS side aims a sword at the 2015 Algerian Cup winners but remains buoyed though.
‘We are all ready for the game tomorrow and are confident,’ he tells from Algeria forty-eight hours before the game.
‘Our goal is to win it (the Confederation Cup) and we are working hard to achieve it,’ he says.
Should FUS Rabat get to overcome MO, a herculean task of facing either five times Champions League winners TP Mazembe or Cup holders Tunisia’s Etoile du Sahel -who were in action at press time –lies in waiting in the finals.
[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]‘They ( Mazembe and Sahel) are big names in Africa but for us we see it the other way. All teams are the same and hard to play with. So every game is important. The goal is the trophy,’[/perfectpullquote]
he continues but not without circumspection pending outcome of Saturday’s result.
If all goes as planned, the 22-year-old striker would then become the only player from his country, Gambia to win the Caf Confederation Cup. By this, it wouldn’t be hard to understand when football-crazed fans fork out the usual less-than-a-dollar cinema fine to watch their very own in this semi-final first-leg clash.
Four years ago, Njie –who’d been called to the Gambia national team setup several times – was a local player walking his way up the ladder while with Real de Banjul before the Rabat-based club lured him to the North African country.
It occurred that Real de Banjul faced FUS in a champions League preliminary round first round and Yusupha was on show for the Banjul club, proving a thorn in Rabat’s defence.
Though Real eventually got booted out amid emotional scenes, the Gambian forward caught the Moroccan club’s eyes prompting the brokering of a deal between the two sides leading to Yusupha’s transfer.
Already he‘d netted a total of twenty-two goals since joining in 2013. Had it not been for niggling injuries, he would have potentially stretched beyond his 9-goal and 5-asisist haul, last season.
With a goal tally of three in the Confederation Cup, Yusupha will be one of the strikers gaffer Hoalid Regraguid would be relying on to shepherd his men to the finals when they duel with MO today.
Featured Photo: Courtesy of Fath Union Sport
