GTBank crowned champions of Inter-Banks Football Tournament

John Jainer opened the scoring for GTBank in the 9th minute, before Momodou Mbowe doubled their lead in the 19th minute to give them a 2-nil leading going into the break.

Francis Mendy scored the third goal to make it a comfortable victory for the Guarantee Trust Bank team to be crowned champions of the 2022 edition of the Inter-Banks tournament which is named after the former Governor of the Central Bank of The Gambia.

Ousainou Njie, head coach of Guarantee Trust Bank (GTBank), expressed delight with winning the trophy for GTBank for the fourth time.

“I’ve been the coach for Guarantee Trust Bank (GTBank) for years now. I won the trophy for them three times and this is the fourth time of winning it,” said head Coach Njie.

He continued: “Unfortunately for the past two to three years, I was not coaching the team until we won the trophy. So luckily I am back and we won the trophy again.”

According to him, they won convincingly in the final because they were more tactical than their opponent, FBN Bank.

Musa Mbengeh, head coach for First Bank of Nigeria (FBN), said though he was disappointed with the final result, he was happy that they have achieved their goal in this year’s tournament by reaching the finals.

According to him, one reason that led to their losing the final was, he had changed their game plan.

“I was denied by the organising committee to play two of my players who are staff of the Bank. This changed my formation. Those players are permanent staff of the Bank,” he said.

As winners, Guarantee Trust Bank (GTBank) were awarded a giant trophy and a cash prize of D75, 000, while runners up, First Bank of Nigeria (FBN) were given a consolation amount of D60, 000.

Eleven banks have participated in this year’s Late Governor Famara Jatta’s Inter-Banks Football Fournament. 

Standard Chartered Bank and EcoBank are the only banks that did not participate in the tournament. 

The aim of the tournament, according to organisers was to foster unity and create cordial relationship in the banking industry.