The route, known locally as “the back way”, is followed by thousands of Gambians every year. It is extremely dangerous, with many perishing in the Sahara, or during the hazardous sea crossing.

Jawara, who travelled with a 19-year-old friend who also died in the shipwreck, had left Gambia without telling her family or team-mates of her plans.

“She was always quiet and very determined on and off the pitch. She told her family she was going off playing football somewhere and then disappeared; she didn’t tell us anything,” said Sissoho.

The hazardous journey was paid for by her agent, officials said, who believed her role playing for the national side in the women’s U-17 World Cup in Azerbaijan in 2012 would guarantee attention from clubs in Europe.

Jawara went on to play for the Red Scorpions, Gambia’s top women’s football club, and in further internationals. She saved a penalty in a friendly last year in Scotland, gaining accolades there and at home.

“Fatim was like many other young footballers here. She came from a poor background like most Gambians. Everyone knows about the stars who make millions playing for European clubs. These young people just want to provide for their families and so did she. So they risk the back way. Some make it. She didn’t and that’s a tragedy and a big loss for Gambian football,” said Ebou Faye, the vice-president of Gambia’s football federation.

Though its population is just under 2 million, Gambia’s citizens are among the top five nationalities identified attempting to cross the Mediterranean from Libya to Italy in recent years.

Many are fleeing poverty or hoping to earn enough to support their families; others are seeking to escape the repressive rule of veteran ruler president Yahya Jammeh, an army officer who came to power in a 1994 coup.

“There are so many trying to get to Europe to play football. They hear about stars earning millions and they don’t think about the risks. It is not good for Gambia at all,” Faye told the Guardian.

Bakery Jatta, a Gambian teenager who reached Germany via the Sahara and the Mediterranean in 2014, was recently signed by the German football club Hamburg.

“I knew that I had to take this difficult and dangerous path of fleeing upon myself if I wanted to have a chance at a future,” the 18-year-old told reporters.

Few west African footballers are as successful, however. A recent study of players in Poland found that if some earn more than $1,000 a month, others play for free and occasional bonuses.

Officials said Jawara wanted to travel to Europe because few scouts came to Gambia and she hoped to land a big contract.

But Sissoho said her friend was not motivated by money: “She just loved the game so much.”

Source: The Guardian