Profile of Pap Saine: SJAG’s ‘Contribution to Sports Award’ recipient

Born 4 October 1950, Mr. Saine started his career in 1970 with Radio Syd, where he covered sport in both English and Wolof.

In the same year, he joined the team of commentators of Radio Gambia and up to date, Pap comments on sport for the national radio.

Mr. Saine also used to contribute in the sports programmes of West Coast whenever The Gambia plays international matches.

Having joined Reuters News Agency in 1976, Pap started to cover sport world wide.

From 1975 to 1994, Mr. Saine used to accompany the National Team by covering their overseas matches for the Gambian media and served as media officer for the Gambia Football Association, a job that he was doing voluntarily.

From 1981 to 1983, Mr. Saine was writing sport articles for Senegambia Sun.

From 1984 to 1991, he was writing for the Gambia Daily newspaper and from 1989 to 1991, was writing for Topic Magazine.

He also wrote for France football magazine from 1985 to 2002. From 1985 to 2002, he was among the voters of the African Footballer of the Year Award.

Pap was the first Gambian journalist to cover the African Cup of Nations and the World Cup; that is, African Cup of Nations, from 1978 to 2004 and the World Cup in 1990, 1994 and 1998.

In 1988, he received an award from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and in the same year he received an award in Morocco during the African Cup of Nations quiz competition in African football.

Mr. Saine also used to cover Olympic Games. In 1999, he received an award from the National Olympic Committee. From 1998 to 2004, Pap served as President of The Gambia Sports Journalists Association.

He also served as a member of the Press Committee of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) from 1988 to 2002.

From 1997 to 2002, he served as a member of Sports Intelligence Unit based in Denmark.

In the year 2000, Mr. Saine was appointed press officer of CAF (Nigeria/Ghana Nations Cup).

From 2004 to date, he has been serving as Life Honorary President of The Gambia Sports Journalists Association.

He has also won two international awards, in 2006 in Germany by the Johann-Philipp-Palm Prize and in 2010 by the International Press Institute (IPI) based in Vienna, Austria.