EI Interview – Sadibou Kamaso
Sadibou Kamaso is one of the most recognised football development ambassadors in The Gambia. Former Board Member of The Gambia Football Federation (2018 – 2022), CEO of a Football Club for over thirteen years, and without maximising, one of the most known football agents in the country.
Sadibou facilitated the careers of many Gambian players supporting their transfers to Europe and Africa.
His commitment to Football development involves many other activities and his interest and genuine attachment to players really demonstrate his enthusiasm.
Sadibou is one of those professionals who truly believe in the power of a clear and serene mind as a crucial factor for development, and ultimately performance.
We met in Nairobi at the African Football Business Summit where we had the chance to briefly conversate and we found each other on the same page from the very same moment, talking about how important is the Mental wellbeing during career transition.
In this interview, Sadibou shares a variety of critical points: How an issue from the mind can lead to physical pain and injuries, How a personal dynamic (parents divorcing) can influence the performance of a player and more profoundly how to create that psycho-emotionally safe environment for them to open up and allow support. We talked about wrong coping strategies (like alcohol or smoking) that intrinsically will damage performance or broadly create an obstacle to the athlete’s peak performance degrees.
We discussed How to equip the athlete with these mental and emotional “intangible but visible” tools for coping with a transfer to another continent, with the family far away, different facilities, culture, food, weather and so on, which is a factor of major importance to guarantee success.
Thanks, finally, for the touching real-life case study, it really gave a clue of what athletes go through alongside the football athletic life and what we can do to support them in a comprehensive, holistic way.
I won’t anticipate more.
Coaches, Trainers, Athletes, and especially Board Members, this interview is for You!
My deepest gratitude Sadibou for Your time and for sharing Your expertise.
Enjoy the interview!
