City FC steal Drammeh under the noses of European clubs

Cape Town City have managed to secure the signature of top Gambia prospect Kajally Drammeh.

The South African club snapped up Europe-bound Drammeh on a four-year contract for a “club record fee” from Gambian giants Real de Banjul.

The 18-year-old, who was one of the standout performers as the Gambia U20 reached the knockout phase of the 2021 Africa U-20 Cup of Nations where they stunned Tunisia to finish third in the continental tournament, attracted interest from a host of European clubs including Anderlecht, FC Midtjylland, Budapest Honvéd, Slovan Bratislava, FC Torino, FC Krasnodar, and Hungarian giants Ferencváros where he visited.

Gambia Sports can even confirm that he had visited Egyptian Premier League side El Gouna FC but it was Mother City-based club who could secure his services.

Cape Town City coach Eric Tinkler is delighted with the acquisition of Drammeh saying: “Kajally is a young, attacking player that we scouted from the Gambia. He’s someone who we’ve been chasing since the start of the season, but we only managed now to conclude the deal.”

 Tinkler added: “We’ve been watching him every single week in the Gambian league. He’s 18 years old but shows a level of maturity that [indicates] he’s more than capable of already playing at the highest level. There was a lot of interest from Europe in him and I think we’ve managed to snap up a very talented young player before he made that move. He’s someone I believe will have a very bright future.”

Real de Banjul President William Abraham said of the move: “I know many people will ask ‘why South Africa’ but remember this is a player who went to top Hungarian club Ferencváros and an Egyptian club where he visited, he was even supposed to go to Denmark twice but when Cape Town City came with an offer of a direct contract, we thought it was wise for him to go there and start his professional football career.”

 Kajally will don the number 7 jersey for Cape Town City who are currently 9th on the 16-team PSL table with 22 points after 16 matches.