Fifty-eight lads have earned a call-up to  The Gambia under 17 team which will be nurtured to represent the nation in the qualifying rounds of the 2009 African under 17 championship and FIFA under 17 finals in Algeria and Nigeria respectively.

The youngsters were identified during a nation-wide scouting spree that was conducted by the technical committee of the national football governing body earlier this year.

The pre-selected team will commence collective training on Saturday, March 1, under the guidance of Egyptian coach Tarik Siagy, who is expected to name his final list from the lots during the course of their training.

Seedy Kinteh, president of The Gambia Football Association revealed that the nation-wide scouting of young talents for the
youth team will now be an annual process in a bid to maintain high-standard national teams.

Qualifying round fixtures released

The Confederation of African Football last night released the fixtures for the qualifying round the Algeria 2009 finals. The Gambia have been given a bye in the preliminary competition, and will host in Banjul the winner of the Sierra Leone - Liberia match in mid Aujust for the first round qualifier. Should they progress, the Baby Scorpions will face either  Ghana or Libya in the second round qualifier in September 2008.

The Gambia youth team will not be, however, underrated by their opponents - thanks to their past great successes in youth football.

Champions of the 2005 CAF under 17 championship finals, hosted in Banjul, the Baby Scorpions added more icing to the cake when they humbled mighty Brazil in their first group match in the FIFA under 17 finals hosted in Peru in the same year.

Read aside for the full list of the 58 players.