From a migrant boat to Roma's first team

After AS Roma’s Sunday’s loss to Sampdoria, the crisis in the famous Italian club has reached new heights. On Tuesday, it was announced that coach Paulo Fonseca will leave his post at the end of the season and that he will be followed by the famous Jose Mourinho. In all that ’sea’ of news, reactions and drama, it almost went unnoticed that a young midfielder made his first team debut for Giallorossi.

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Ebrima Darboe is the Gambian born player whose life story didn’t start well, but ended in a most beautiful way on Sunday. As per ANSA, Darboe left his country when he was 14. He went alone, and left his mother, brother and his two sisters (father has died earlier) to search for a better life. His journey started in an overcrowded bus that took him to Libya. Here, he was taken to a camp by human traffickers and endured abuse and violence. He was subsequently able to leave on a boat to Sicily along with many others fleeing famine and war.

After arriving to Italy with a migrant ship, Ebrima was registered with the SPRAR project (Protection System for Refugees and Asylum Seekers) and was immediately assigned a social worker by the courts. At the time, Darboe, who is 1.8-meter tall, only weighed 50 kilos. He was then transferred to live with a family in Rieti, in the Lazio region, where he started playing soccer again, a sport he also practiced in Gambia.

After beginning to play for the amateur team Young Rieti, the teenager continued his Italian education before eventually having a trial at Roma. During a match, organized by Ask Young Rieti, he was noticed by a talent scout of the Roma team, who started to follow his games, convincing the club then owned by James Pallotta to invest in this young midfielder. Darboe started training in the AS Roma Trigoria camp, then debuted with the under-21 team in Coppa Italia, after a slow start due to red tape: in order to become a member of Roma, the team had to wait for him to be granted refugee status. FIFA had to intervene, along with a social worker who was appointed by a tribunal to be his tutor.

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After joining the Giallorossi, Ebrima played for the AC Roma U-19 squad. The young midfielder signed a professional contract with Roma in July, a moment he described as “fulfilling a dream”, per AC Roma official website. He earns 50,000 euros a year, which he sends almost entirely home to his mother. He weighs 70 kilos now.

His journey from native Gambia had a happy ending with his first match in Serie A, at Genoa's Marassi stadium against Sampdoria on Sunday. After Roma announced on Tuesday that current coach Paulo Fonseca will leave the club at the end of the season, Ebrima’s future now depends on the famous coach Jose Mourinho, who will take over from Fonseca.