Place of birth Serekunda, The Gambia Height 166 cm (5 ft 5 ⁄2 in) Position Goalkeeper | Place of death Mediterranean Sea Playing position | |
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Date of birth (1997-03-13)March 13, 1997 Date of death October 27, 2016(2016-10-27) (aged 19) Died 27 October 2016, Mediterranean Sea | ||
Fatim Jawara (13 March 1997 in Serekunda – 27 October 2016 in the Mediterranean Sea) was a Gambian association footballer who played for the Gambia women's national football team and top Gambian women's football club Red Scorpions FC. In 2012, she played as the substitute goalkeeper at the 2012 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup for the under-17 national team. She died attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea by boat to Italy in 2016.
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Club
Jawara played as an association football goalkeeper for Gambia's top women's football club, the Red Scorpions FC, based in Serekunda, The Gambia. She eventually became the first choice goalkeeper for the team.
International
Jawara represented Gambia on the under-17 and senior national teams. She was called up to the Gambia women's national under-17 football team, making her debut in 2009 and went on to play at the 2012 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup in Azerbaijan. She made her debut for the women's national football team in 2015, and saved a penalty kick in a friendly against Glasgow Girls F.C. from the Scottish Women's Football League First Division during the match.
Death
In September 2016, Jawara left her homeland Serrekunda in Gambia and crossed the Sahara Desert to Libya. Once in Libya, she contacted her family and informed them that she was travelling to Europe to seek a position playing for a major European club.
At the end of October 2016, she attempted to smuggle herself into Europe by travelling with others on two boats across the Mediterranean Sea, heading towards the island of Lampedusa, Italy. Due to a severe storm, their boats sank and Jawara drowned. She was 19 years old.
Her absence was first noted when the national team was due to play Casa Sports F.C. from Senegal as part of a festival to celebrate women's football. Several days after the accident, her family was contacted by the agent to inform them that the boat had capsized, and she had drowned.
Reactions to her death
Lamin Kaba Bajo, President of the Gambia Football Federation, said "We are grieving at the moment as this is a great loss to the national soccer team and the nation."