Catherine Jatta: Gambia's fearless goal poacher ready to shine
Soft spoken and very shy off the pitch but Gambia's young forward Catherine Jatta is a different character when she's on the football pitch.
The 19 year-old Interior Ladies striker has surprised many football commentators in the tiny West African country with her impressive stats last season finishing as the top goalscorer and winning the women's top league.
Jatta, also fondly called "Di Maria" because of her dribbling skills likened to the Argentine attacker started her football like many girls around the continent.
"I started playing football very early when I was in nursery school," Catherine told CAFOnline. "I used to play football with my brothers and the other boys in the neighborhood, because back then I mostly move with them, because of my love for the game at that tender age."
The last decade has witnessed huge progress in The Gambia's women's football development as the country qualified to the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup, Azerbaijan 2012.
The historic qualification to the global tournament helped boost the development and acceptance of girls and women taking football as a career.
"My parents really supported me to play the beautiful game unlike many girls in the country," said Jatta.
"The support from my family helped me to develop my confidence and be more serious about the game because they just wanted me to enjoy what I loved doing."
The global Corona virus pandemic brought the world to a standstill but that was a blessing in disguise for young Catherine Jatta.
"During the early days of the global Corona virus pandemic the league was suspended and basically there was no activity for us but my brother challenged me to train with his colleagues," she revealed.
"I joined my brother's daily training with his friends to keep my fitness and that really played a huge part in the successful season I had last term."
The teenage sensation hit an incredible 16 goals tally and outscored the league's record goalscorer Adama Tamba of Red Scorpions.
"When we returned for training I was already fully fit so I had an advantage over most of the players in the league thus the reason I finished as the top scorer of the league with 16 goals," the youngster explained.
"Winning the league's top scorers award was a pleasant surprise to myself because in the first half of the season I was not starting most of the matches while some (competitors) were on five goals already.
"When I started scoring it was unbelievable I was scoring for fun. I was scoring hat-tricks and made myself that consistent goal poacher for my club."
Senior Scorpions
The Gambia's hopes will be on Catherine to replicate her club form with the national team as they start their TotalEnergies Women's Africa Cup of Nations, Morocco 2022 campaign against Sierra Leone.
The Scorpions will travel to Liberia's capital Monrovia where Sierra Leone will be playing their home game.
"My selection into the senior national team is a reward for my good exploits in the league last term and I want to return the coach's trust with a good performance when I get on the field," noted Catherine.
"I've played for the U-20s two years ago and it was great feeling representing my country and to have another opportunity is a massive privilege.
"I'm really confident that we can get a good performance and result away to Sierra Leone before the second leg at home.
"It will be my first outing with the senior team but we're wary of the opponent because it's not going to be easy but we want to put a marker in the first leg.
"It will be a dream come true to score on my senior national team debut," she concluded.