Ebrima Darboe is reflecting on the sharper edges Gambia have brought to this Africa Cup of Nations and lands upon the influence of his club manager. “He’s helped me a lot with my character,” says the young Roma player of José Mourinho, who has kept him close to the first-team squad this season. “I was such a good person and he taught me that in football you don’t have to be too nice, you have to be nasty.”
The point is relevant to Gambia’s eye-catching Cup of Nations campaign. They are debutants and nobody would, on the face of things, have expected much from a side representing the continent’s smallest mainland country. But the Scorpions had an excellent group stage, beating Tunisia and drawing with a fancied Mali, and face Guinea on Monday in an extremely winnable last-16 tie. They have done it by boxing clever: once maligned, Gambian players are making their way in Europe’s bigger leagues and discovering the streetwise edge of winners.
