The story of Fatou Kanteh (27 years) is a path of overcoming. The one that his father toured to get to Spain. “It was with his brother from Gambia to Morocco And by several African countries to try to get the visa, ”confessed the current attacker of the Seville FC In a talk with the League F.
“Between the two he only reached for a ticket. Then he told his brother” when I arrive I start working, I gather money and buy you the ticket, “he said excitedly when talking about Mussa, her parent. When he arrived he brought Mokeh, His mother, a native of Senegal, Already his second wife, which for Fatou is also his mother. “My sister told me that it was not an easy trip because lives are lost.” In total there are nine brothers. She was born in Banyoles (Girona) and since childhood she was always stuck to a ball.
“I should cook, put washing machines …”
“I went out to recess with my classmates and I was going to play football directly because it was what filled me.” He did it because he liked it, regardless of the comments he received for being a woman and African. “The typical marimacho or my mother’s friends what your daughter, woman does, playing football when I should do home tasks, cook, wash, wash the dishes … ”
Prejudices that twenty years later have taken the elite of Spanish football. “Thanks to those comments and the willpower that I had I could fulfill my dream,” He responded proudly. Although, and despite continuing to make their own football matches, his parents continued without letting him play in any team, until a talk with his reinforcement teacher changed everything.
“I started playing football in why”
He was his salvation. “I commented and told me” But your parents don’t give you permission and I told him no. “Until one day, when leaving the classes, he decided to accompany her home.” He spoke with my parents and left me. With him I went to aim at why, which is where I started playing in a football team ”. If it hadn’t been for that teacher, maybe Fatou would never have played professionally, although “I would surely have continued to insist,” he confessed with a laugh.
Fatou Kanteh, attacker of Sevilla FC
Photo: League f
From street football to be able to have a team with companions, skipping base football. “I have not gone through Prebenjamín, Benjamin, fry … at first it cost me because it was very head,” He replied. Another of the moments that changed his life was when thanks to the project of the FC Barcelona He could see the female Barça.
There he realized that he wanted to face Alexia, Aitana… “It was a very nice moment because I really saw that I was not going badly wanting to get there and one day I could play against them,” he explains. In 2018, already half of the season, he decided to leave his comfort zone and sign for the EDF Logroño, with which he ascended to First Division. His first professional team, far from his home, and having to change all his eating and rest habits. “We trained more days, I had to take more care. After the ascent, he had to face his parents again, who did not let him return to La Rioja, but she was clear “you are not going to take away the dream that I am fulfilling in the First Division, I made my bags and I left.”
Combining the subsidiary with the first team and dreaming of scoring a goal in Las Gaunas. A year later, in 2019, the Sporting de Huelva by Manoli and Antonio Toledo “was the team that gave me the opportunity to continue in the First Division” for three years later to reach the Villarreal CF. In the Castellón team it coincided with Sara Monforte, For which he only has words of thanks “he helped me a lot because I had to learn the movements, positions, understandings of the game …”.
Rocambolesca history with gambia
Between these two stages he decided to write to the Gambia Federation to be international with his father’s country. Given the lack of response, a Nigerian journalist (Samuel Ahmadu) managed to help her and make her summon her. “As they didn’t see, they made me pay my first leg and back,” he revealed.
The last day they paid it. His debut with Gambia occurred on October 25, 2021 against Sierra Leone (1-1) in the Independence Stadium of Bakau. Fatou premiered with a header after a lateral foul. “My strong point is not to finish off, but it was very nice to arrive, debut and score such a special goal,” he said. To write and answer to be named best Gambia player in 2024. “I am very grateful, but I always say the same, it is an award that should be collective not individual,” he replies. That trip to his father’s roots changed his life and decided to create ‘Gambia project’, to which League f It has joined the delivery of shirts and balls at the end of this season. “We raised clothing, balls, notebooks, pens, diapers, milk powder to wear in summer.”
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What does not take long to add “Here we get up and you have clothes to choose from, you have shoes, every day you go with a different garment, but there are families that do not have a good economic level and suffer,” Express. Fatou feels immense joy every time he sees the illusion face of a boy or a girl who receives a shirt or a football ball. “I have been lucky that my father emigrated and I have been born here and I have had access to all the facilities, I have not lacked an eating dish, and I have been able to go to school, but I have selection companions that they cannot. Help with a grain of sand, even if it is small there will be a lot, ”said Sevilla FC front, which is very clear about the message that sends girls who want to play football.
“Do not get carried away by any comment. If you have a goal in mind and see for him and that nothing and no one tells you that you cannot get it. I have fought a lot and I had to listen to many comments and today those people have seen that I have achieved it,” she said proudly.
Sevilla FC, its other big family
Fatou Kanteh dreams of classifying Gambia for the Africa Cup, and keep scoring goals with the Seville FCwhere he has found another great family. Precisely, when the season ends, he will travel to Gambia with Débora García and with more companions of the Andalusian team to carry all the material that has compiled. Because in the city he feels very comfortable “they open the doors of her house”, and she, with the smile that characterizes her, will open her heart again to all the girls in her country.
