Paul Put Critics: Chicken Hearts die of Shame

The former Coach of the Gambia national football team Paul Put has proven his critics wrong by qualifying Burkina Faso for their first ever Nations Cup final in history.

Paul Put, Former Gambian Coach

He guided the stallions of Burkina to 3-2 penalties win over tournament favorite Ghana on Wednesday night in South Africa.

Paul Put was doing a great job in the Gambia until then Ministry of Youth and Sports,headed by  Sheriff Gomez and his then permanent Secretary, now at the helm at the Ministry, issued a press release that Paul contract was termanated .

Some people are in favour of  Paul Put sacking by the Ministry of Youth and now those same people are now using the case of  Coach Steve Keshi  of  Nigeria and Coach Appiah of Ghana  for example of successful local coaches in Africa.

But they fail to understand that Steve Keshi or Appiah cannot be compared to Gambian local coaches handling our national team.

Coach Keshi has coached Nigeria, Togo, and Mali before bouncing back as Nigeria coach again while coach Appiah of Ghana was World U-20 champions with Ghana batting Brazil in the final.

So they don’t have reasons to back their malicious act by campaigning for the sacking of Paul Put. They should be ashamed of themselves for   robbing the Gambia of a worthy asset.

Paul Put arrived in Gambia sometimes in April 2008 with hopes of inking a permanent deal as Gambia's coach. It was just a month before the start of Gambia's joint qualifier campaign for the 2010 World Cup & Nations Cup finals.

At this time, the then Seedy Kinteh-led GFA Executive had made up its mind to snatch the coach at any cost, but the sport ministry, which was to shoulder the coach's salary, was adamant.

The then GFA was able to get President Jammeh to personally endorse the coach.

The President agreed to foot the coach's transport and accommodation bills while Telecom giants Africell agreed to pay for his two-year salary. A deal was sealed. In that year, Paul Put didn't qualify the Gambia to the World Cup nor to the Nations Cup, but that qualifying campaign remains Scorpions' best qualifying run ever - knocking out bitter rivals Senegal in their group before a two-goal deficit separated them from earning a spot in the 2010 Nations Cup finals.

After that fine run President Jammeh personally take up the salary of Coach Paul Put in a four year contract that ticked hi with Gambia.

Two years later, the same sport ministry that jettisoned the Seedy Kinteh-led Executive from office, fired the coach on reasons best known to them.

I'm not saying Gambia would've been where Burkina is today if Paul Put had stayed (for even Josè Mourinho can't fix Gambia's football problem in a year or two), but we're wrong to let him go at that crucial stage.

But again, see how some setbacks would come to you as blessings in disguise. If Paul Put had not been kicked out of Gambia at that time, he might well not be in South Africa today piping at Africa's most coveted football trophy from such a close range: Final against Nigeria on Sunday.

Source: Tombong Jadama of Kickoffgambia.com