The head coach of the Gambia national team Tom Saintfiet has resigned from his position after the Scorpions suffered a group-stage exit from the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in Ivory Coast.
The Gambia opened their 2023 AFCON campaign with a 3-0 defeat to defending champions Senegal and then fell to a 1-0 loss against fellow West Africans Guinea.
The 50-year-old Belgian coach announced his decision after the Scorpions´ late 3-2 loss to Cameroon in their final game in Group C, a defeat that left his team bottom of Group C with no points despite all the excitement it brought to the tournament.
Saintfiet, who has coached a host of African national teams, has been in charge of the Gambia team since 2018. He led the Gambia, which is surrounded by Senegal on the west coast of Africa, to its first-ever Africa Cup qualification in 2021. His team reached the quarterfinals of that tournament.
“Thank you for your service, gaffer. Gambia will indeed miss a great tactician,” the Gambia Football Federation said in a message posted on X.
The Gambia were 168th in the world rankings when Saintfiet took charge in July 2018, and the 50-year-old departed after improving their position to 126th.
Saintfiet was appointed the head coach of The Gambia in 2018 and led the side to the quarter-finals of the 2021 edition of AFCON on their debut, but could not repeat those heroics in Ivory Coast.
The Gambia endured a difficult build-up to this year’s finals in Ivory Coast, with the squad caught up in last September’s devastating earthquake in the Moroccan city of Marrakesh, when over 2,000 people died, before their final qualifier against Congo-Brazzaville.
The squad boycotted a pre-tournament training session earlier this month while demanding a bonus payment for qualifying, and then saw their flight from Banjul to Ivory Coast aborted because of a pressurisation issue in the cabin.
