Give any technician the choice to pick the best players in the Gambian league in recent seasons and you can bet the name Momodou Lamin Sawo will occupy top place.
He is pacy, imaginative and powerful on the ball and can execute masterly passes in addition to great skills in setting up goals and scoring goals of his own. And he indeed scored memorable ones.
The 19 year old midfielder scored 8 goals and assisted in 5 others in 15 matches to make the single largest contribution to Wallidan’s climb back to the first Division, after just one year in the drop.
On the back of that stunning performance in the league, Sawo inspired his Brikama Zonal team to win the biggest community football championship, the Super Nawettan, for the first time with his crucial second goal in the 3-2 beating of Bakau in the final in December 2012
Sawo went to Brikama town that season on loan from Wallidan, and helped the Sateba boys to land their first ever crown as champions of the Gambia.
That came with a right to play in Africa, and when AS Ouakam of Senegal came to town for the first leg of the preliminaries, Sawo and his mates unsuccessfully played their heart out to neutralize an early away goal and subsequent win by the much older and richer Senegalese but on the return leg in Dakar, Brikama United won by the same aggregate in regulation time and it was Sawo who set the Brimaka team to win the tie by scoring the first penalty of the shoot outs that eliminated the Senegalese champions.
In the second round of the qualifiers Brikama hosted an even more powerful side, North African giants Esperance of Tunisia and pulled a 1-1 home draw. On the return leg in Tunis Momodou Sawo stunned the capacity filled stadium with a first goal as Brikama began a formidable but unsuccessful bid to upset the Tunisians,
“Sawo gave us belief that we could make the impossible in that match ,‘’remarked fellow player who made that trip to the Northern tip of Africa. His reputation as imaginative player made earned him several calls to the nation a team making his debut against Angola in Luanda as Gambia visit the southern African country in a friendly in last year.
ML Sawo was groomed and plugged from the ever groovy Serekunda East Nawettan, suiting for Macassa football team where his tantalizing skills earned him a strong reputation among technicians from league clubs who wrestled for his services. He also tested international youth football in 2010 after been fielded against Morocco in the first leg of the Under 17 qualifiers.
Sawo is easily the Gambian hottest midfielders with lethal feet and an imagination that always present delightful watch for all his technicians and multitude of admirers.
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