The World is a Ball: Refugee will return to Africa to defend his country at the Nations Cup

Six years after leaving his country to emigrate to Europe as a refugee, defensive midfielder Ebrima Darboe will return to Africa, for a short period, to defend his nation’s Gambia in the African Nations Cup.

According to the Infomigrants website, Darboe decided, at the age of 14, to separate from his mother, a brother and two sisters in order to seek better living conditions.

They lived in Serekunda, the largest city in the small West African country, whose capital is Banjul.

Having lost his father, the then teenager Darboe had a hard journey, which lasted six months, until his arrival in Italy.

He faced a long journey, over 3,600 km, in an overcrowded bus, to Libya, a country bordered by the Mediterranean Sea and from where ships with migrants, usually in precarious conditions, depart for Europe.

In Libya, as reported by Infomigrants, he was taken by people smugglers to a camp, undergoing physical and psychological abuse before finding a place on a boat, along with other people fleeing hunger and war on the African continent.

Upon arriving on the island of Sicily, the 1.80 m tall boy weighed only 50 kilos. She was taken care of by a refugee protection center until she moved to live with a family in Lazio, near the capital, Rome.

With a more stable life, he returned to playing football –he was already a player in The Gambia– and caught the attention of a Roma scout at a tournament for teams in the region.

He started to train with Roma, in the case categories, and since 2019 he has been part of the main team, today led by the Portuguese José Mourinho.

Darboe is today an example, still rare, of a refugee migrant who has a promising future ahead.

From the precarious situation, of hunger and poverty, in The Gambia (a former British colony), he has a stable life, in a respected European club, one of the most important in Italy.

Roma even gave him the opportunity to play in international tournaments, such as the Europa League and the Conference League, and pay him a salary of R$27 thousand – most of which he sends to his family.

“Four or five years ago I was in Africa watching the players on TV and now I’ve been able to play against some of them,” he said after their 3-2 victory over Manchester United in May. “It’s exciting.”

For the Gambia national team, Darboe, now weighing 70 kilos, has performed six times. He must start the team at the African Nations Cup, in which his country will be making his debut.

The competition with 24 teams, hosted by Cameroon, if not affected by the Covid pandemic – there was talk of the possibility of cancellation –, will start on January 9th and will end on February 6th.