This is an updated version of an article originally published in April to reflect Yankuba Minteh joining Brighton.
It is 11am Sunday, but Yankuba Minteh has already been up in the night.
The Gambian winger, then on loan at Feyenoord from Newcastle United, wakes up at 3am to pray and eat a Ramadan meal with his siblings before returning to bed. At 2.30pm, he will play the biggest match of his career so far: his side are hosting Ajax, their greatest rivals, in De Klassieker at De Kuip.
After his alarm goes off for a second time, it is an hour until the team is due to meet. He does not have a driving licence, so grabs his kitbag, swings his leg over a bike, and cycles the five-minute journey to the training ground.
When Minteh was not yet 10 years old, he told his first coach that he was Lionel Messi.
Saikou Omar Joof was a trainer at the Bakoteh United Football Academy but had enjoyed a successful career himself in The Gambia, a country of under three million in West Africa, whose borders hug the river of the same name. Because of his success, those watching in Bakoteh, a village near the country’s largest city, Serrekunda, had nicknamed the coach after the Argentinian superstar.
For Minteh, precociously talented himself and a rabid Barcelona fan, this would not do at all.
“He told me: ‘You are not Messi’,” Joof remembers. “‘I am more like Messi than you.’”
A 10-year-old Minteh playing in Bakoteh (Abdou Touray)
As he grew up, Minteh began to play down the comparisons, which had by then become a nickname. “My name is Yankuba,” he told the crowds who watched his school matches. Secretly, however, he relished the comparisons with his idol.
Despite Bakoteh’s tiny size, the village has produced several professional players by virtue of having the only free community pitches in the area. As well as Minteh, it is also home to the Roma defensive midfielder Ebrima Darboe, now on loan at Sampdoria. But Minteh, whose childhood home was less than 200m from the touchlines, is its greatest product.
His father worked as a cook in the hotels which crowd the mouth of the river, while his mother sold vegetables in the local market for extra money. Even within Bakoteh, they were a humble family — along with his parents, Minteh and his six siblings shared a house with two bedrooms in their compound.
By all accounts, however, his time inside was limited and came with dragged heels. Minteh spent all hours on the community field. At Bakoteh United’s academy, all the ages were mixed into one team. Minteh, by far the youngest and slight for his age, gave no quarter. Joof remembers him scoring from the halfway line in one early match.
“His parents used to have to force him to go to school,” says Abdou Touray, another coach. “He used to get mad at me because it was part of my rules that to play, you had to go. He only wanted to play football.”
Eligibility for the school’s team tempted him through the gates, but as he signed for Gambian second-division side Steve Biko FC, who he soon helped to promotion, Minteh was allowed to finish his education early.
Minteh with Saikou Joof, one of his first coaches (Saiko O. Joof)
“Football is like a school for me,” he told the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten last year. “I learn something all the time. If there are no matches on TV, I watch highlights from previous matches. I follow the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, the Bundesliga, and Ligue 1. I study both the tactical things and the individual players. If a trick is done that I didn’t know, I try it out in training the next day.”
Sometimes, he would watch these matches with Abdou — though Minteh barred Abdou, a Manchester United fan, and his father, a Bayern Munich supporter, from watching Barcelona games with him. For the young winger, who has worn Messi’s No 10 jersey at any opportunity, the stakes were simply too high.
2.36pm: The game kicks off and it is clear that Feyenoord want to get Minteh the ball early and often. Ajax’s talented young centre-back, Jorrel Hato, is playing out-of-position at left-back — Minteh is one of the few players in the Eredivisie with a pace advantage over him. After six minutes, Feyenoord right-back Bart Nieuwkoop holds Hato with his eyes and plays Minteh down the line.
One-on-one with the Ajax defender, Minteh drops his left shoulder, as if to advance inside, slows his speed, and shortens his stride length. Cocking his left foot as if to curl it towards the far post, he suddenly draws it round, racing around Hato and towards the byline. From an acute angle six yards out, he forces Ajax goalkeeper Geronimo Rulli into a save and wins a corner.
Through his long-time agent, Bakary Bojang, another former player from Bakoteh who eventually settled in Denmark, Minteh earned a trial at Danish Superliga side Odense Boldklub (OB). Andreas Alm, OB’s head coach at the time, recalls that another Gambian prospect was their main focus going into the match.
“But then Yankuba had six chances in that game within 15 minutes,” he tells The Athletic. “He missed them all — but there was a reason they came to him. He stood out.”
After signing him, Alm spoke of “a kind of desperation” in Minteh’s game, which appealed. Though the initial plan was for Minteh to spend time in the club’s under-19s, Alm soon wanted to fast-track his winger’s progress.
“We were missing a player that could carry the ball like that,” he says. “He can get you 30 or 40 metres (up the pitch) for free. Suddenly, you’re outside the penalty area and the defending team has to change.
“I was a bit frustrated that we couldn’t register him sooner — but we saw how he made big steps forward over the summer. Once he came, they wanted him to go on a trip with the under-19s. I said: ‘No way, he’s going to play for us’.”
Drømmedebut af Yankuba Minteh 🔥#obdk #obfck #sldk pic.twitter.com/GwIcyjrAKL
— Odense Boldklub (@Odense_Boldklub) September 11, 2022
This breakthrough came just two seasons ago. He scored a goal on his debut against FC Copenhagen in September 2022 — chasing a lost cause in the 83rd minute before capitalising on a mistake, handing OB a famous win.
“He was an unknown kid,” says OB academy boss Tonny Hermansen. “He hadn’t even had his name printed on the back of his shirt.”
Minteh’s form continued, with the 18-year-old recording two assists over the next month — and other clubs were already making OB’s phone ring.
However, adapting to a professional environment and a new country, which were completely foreign to him, there were also a number of small disciplinary incidents — such as a training-ground fight with an experienced team-mate, a missed curfew, and a short suspension for breaking a corner flag in frustration at being substituted.
“When he made mistakes off the pitch, I didn’t want to take him out of the team,” says Alm. “I think in his case, it was better to keep him in the team and have a parallel dialogue about how team-mates perceive him.”
Initially, he lived in a form of elite college, where the club paid for him to stay in a block of flats alongside other sportspeople, including footballers, handballers, and ballet dancers — but Minteh did not enjoy living on his own, so moved in with his agent, with his family becoming more regular visitors.
After his return, Minteh had another burst of form — managing a goal and two assists over just two weeks in April. Europe was watching.
3.03pm: Feyenoord are dominant, amid the green smoke they have cordite in their lungs and victory on their mind. What they do not have is a goal — yet. Ajax centre-back Ahmetcan Kaplan dallies on the ball and Minteh, roving infield, picks his pocket. Racing forward, he releases Igor Paixao. Paixao chips it over Rulli with his first touch… and into the Ajax net.
At OB, Minteh’s raw ingredients were promising and his finishing had begun to develop. The club were inundated with offers.
Among the interested parties were Brighton & Hove Albion and RB Leipzig, whose models are predicated on signing prospects from clubs of OB’s profile, as well as Serie A side Udinese and Belgium’s Club Bruges.
Under sporting director Dan Ashworth — who was placed on gardening leave in February before his expected departure to Manchester United — Newcastle had been attempting to make several long-term deals. With the club sailing close to its profit and sustainability rules (PSR) limits, they saw low-risk, high-reward signings as one way to generate future players for the first team — and, at worst, eventually offer resale value. Australia international Garang Kuol, signed from Central Coast Mariners, is another example of the strategy.
Minteh had been flagged within Newcastle’s recruitment team as a player whose attributes compared favourably with current right-winger Miguel Almiron, a point they made to Minteh during negotiations. The club also impressed the teenager with their in-depth presentation on his skill set, including highlighting his defensive work rate. Though they acknowledged that his finishing could be improved, they saw potential. For OB, Newcastle’s offer was financially competitive. Minteh had a decision to make.
Minteh (front row, far left) while playing for Touray’s team (Abdou Touray)
Back in Gambia, Touray was phoned for advice.
“I told him, ‘Yankuba, there are many clubs following you. I think it might be easier for you to start in the Bundesliga rather than the Premier League. If you go there and it doesn’t work out, I think things will be very difficult for you’.
“He told me, ‘Abdou, don’t worry about it. Anywhere I go, I’ll play’.”
The decision was made. With Newcastle close to a deal, Minteh was blocked by OB from playing in one final game in case of injury. He was the most expensive sale in the club’s history at £5.8million ($7.3m), having played for less than a year.
“I was really disappointed that he couldn’t play,” says Alm. “We had a chance to play in Europe, but we were blocked from using him. It was a sad ending — I’d have loved to see him win that game for us.”
3.05pm: Ajax, enduring a nightmare week, are rocked.
Hato attempts to step out of defence to drive a response but is dispossessed by Minteh, the ball spilling to Mats Wieffer. The midfielder feeds Nieuwkoop — and there is Minteh, who has drifted unnoticed into space on the edge of the box, as slowly and as surely as the red tide which is now enveloping Ajax. Minteh shoots first time — and via a nick off Kaplan, sweeps in for his 10th goal of the season.
Hopping over the hoardings, he beats his chest, his scream lost in the stadium’s rapture. Stopping for a moment, he holds up a shinpad depicting his girlfriend to the crowd. The other carries an illustration of his mother.
Speed and directness: the attributes Minteh has made his name with.
In last season’s Eredivisie, just one player (at the time of writing) had attempted more take-ons per game, while no one had made more distance per carry than the Gambian.
There is an end product as well. Only two players — Joey Veerman and Malik Tillman of league-leading PSV Eindhoven — average more shot-creating actions per 90 minutes.
As well as Minteh, Alm was also Newcastle striker Alexander Isak’s first coach.
“Alex has been doing well because he can set up other people and combine with them; Yankuba is more of an individual player who has this amazing pace. He always forces the defender to stand and face him and if the defender always has to do that, it’s going to break the defender down. That’s what he’s doing. He’s trying and he’s trying and he’s trying and he’ll develop his technique even more, with even greater speed.”
Historically, the focus has been on helping him get other players into play — going right back to his days at Bakoteh United. One excellent assist against Heerenveen in September shows how much this part of his game has developed.
“He also had this restlessness in his game,” says Alm. “He wanted to be on the ball all the time, but that makes you drift into positions where you don’t want the player. So we were trying to get him to drop out and pick up the ball in passing positions to set up other players and his own passing game.”
3.44pm: At half-time, with Feyenoord already 3-0 up, Minteh takes a moment of respite to drop to his knees and perform the Asr afternoon prayer — his third of five in the day. The second half brings more of the same. After 55 minutes, Minteh finds himself one-on-one with Hato once more.
Again, he drops his left shoulder, as if to advance inside, slows his speed, and shortens his stride length. Again, Minteh cocks his left foot. This is the set-up. This time, he brings down that foot, catching Hato off-guard, and sending the ball spiralling towards the far corner. It stands in the air like a shuttlecock into the wind, before nestling in the top corner.
Minteh bends in his second goal (ANP via Getty Images)
Newcastle revealed their plans for Minteh on the day his signing was announced.
They would send the winger on loan to Feyenoord for 2022-23 — alternative options were in Scotland and Germany — joining Arne Slot’s reigning Eredivisie champions. As loan moves go, it was a near-ideal situation.
Minteh’s tactical brain needed development. In Slot, he would be working with one of the continent’s best tacticians and in a version of Newcastle’s 4-3-3. He would also immediately be exposed to Champions League football — but be allowed to develop in an environment where he could take one more step up in intensity levels before the fury of the Premier League.
The Netherlands was also seen as a good location for Minteh to continue adapting to life in Europe — lifestyle-wise, it was not seen as a major departure from Denmark. From his apartment, virtually in the shadow of De Kuip, Minteh has learned to cook benachin, his favourite rice dish, and has made local friends from Rotterdam’s Gambian community. In the dressing room, he is particularly close to Feyenoord’s Brazilian forward Paixao.
Slot was careful to introduce his new charge slowly, bringing him off the bench in four of the club’s first five league games as Minteh grew accustomed to the system.
“At first, we thought he played with his head down,” says John, a Feyenoord season ticket holder. “But we have a great coach and he started to improve.”
“We’ve seen big steps,” agrees Michel, another supporter. “He plays for the fans and they’re behind him because they see how much he wants to win.”
Initially, Minteh was as popular for his defensive work as his attacking endeavour. His intensity without the ball is extremely high — even if it is not always the most efficient — he is in the top four per cent of Eredivisie wingers for tackles per 90 minutes.
In March, he scored an equaliser against PSV in a top-of-the-table clash after harrying and dispossessing centre-back Olivier Boscagli, helping secure a 2-2 draw.
Minteh on his way to scoring against PSV (Joris Verwijst/BSR Agency/Getty Images)
That was his best form of the season. After an injury in October, he took a little time to return to speed until the Africa Cup of Nations in January, where he was instantly trusted as his country’s key attacking outlet.
“He certainly doesn’t lack self-confidence,” Slot said earlier this season. “His willingness to give everything is enormous. When we see his statistics, it is really impressive. He runs more sprint metres in an hour than many other boys do in two games.
“He is incredibly fast and he wants it so badly.”
3.51pm: Ajax are 4-0 down and finished, but Minteh is not. He finds the ball level with his own penalty area and races forward, playing a one-two with Nieuwkoop to avoid Benjamin Tahirovic’s wild challenge. Hato races to catch up but Minteh is gone, leaving strewn bodies in his wake, and slipping the ball inside to Quinten Timber. Paixao’s eventual shot is saved by Rulli.
Of course, not every game is perfect; that is why he was on loan. Last season, his positioning, both in and out of possession, was his main focus.
In Volendam, a quiet fishing village north of Amsterdam, Feyenoord faced a surprisingly tough game against relegation-threatened opposition. Volendam set up in a low block, denying Minteh space in behind. When teams do this, it is clear that Minteh still needs to develop ways in which he can consistently impact the game and avoid becoming peripheral.
Nevertheless, there were still flashes. After eight minutes, he got the ball on halfway, turned and went, knocking the ball down the line and chasing it like a flame down a fuse. He won a corner.
“He’s always liked to compete with people running,” says Alm. “Sometimes, he’d even want to give them a head start, like ‘OK, I’ll give you five metres and then I’ll still beat you’.”
On the next three occasions, he ran into space where there wasn’t any. He lost the ball behind the byline. After 56 minutes and with the game heading towards 0-0, he was substituted.
4.05pm: Alireza Jahanbakhsh is warmed up and stripped to his match kit. Minteh knows what is coming. In the 76th minute, the substitute board goes up. He has scored two goals and assisted one and is exhausted from both the fasting and the match’s intensity. But still, even at 6-0 up, Minteh does not want to come off. De Kuip stands and applauds their match-winner on his way.
On that day, watching on from the stands in Volendam was Shola Ameobi, Newcastle’s loan manager. He remained in regular contact with Minteh — so too did Peter Ramage, Ameobi’s deputy. The hope was to also watch Kuol, who endured a difficult year at Volendam, but the Australian did not make it off the bench.
Newcastle did not make a decision on where Minteh’s future until late in the season, only countenancing his sale when the potential size of the club’s potential PSR breach became clear. The message from the club throughout was to ensure he finishes the season strongly with Feyenoord.
“My focus is here,” Minteh told ESPN after the 6-0 win over Ajax. “I am a Newcastle player, but at the moment I play for Feyenoord. Would I like to play for Feyenoord next season? I don’t know. Feyenoord are a great club and if I get the opportunity, I would like to stay, but it depends on Newcastle United’s decision.”
Minteh was a favourite of Feyenoord supporters (Rico Brouwer/Soccrates/Getty Images)
Newcastle’s decision was ultimately made for them. Brighton were one of several interested parties including Everton, Lyon, Nottingham Forest, and Borussia Dortmund — and had been keeping tabs on the player since his first games at Odense. Minteh’s directness and work-rate fits their attacking style, while their player development programme — it is easy to forget that he has played just two professional seasons — has already proven its worth.
Minteh’s dream, from watching in his compound in Bakoteh, has always been to play in the Premier League — the reason why he turned down a deal which had been agreed with Lyon, which would have been more lucrative to Newcastle.
On his first day at Feyenoord, he called friends on the phone after visiting the stadium. His resolve was clear.
“When they give me the chance to enter this field, I will never come out again,” he told them.
So far, at OB and Feyenoord, Minteh has done just that. He still has significant development to undergo, but with that mentality, he has a realistic chance, one day, of doing the same at Brighton.
6.00pm: Minteh lives only a short cycle away from the training ground, but with the roads still closed and his legs tired, he can wait until the next day to pick up his bike. Accompanied by just one member of Feyenoord’s security, he walks straight down Stadionweg onto Puck van Heelstraat, the street which hosts the majority of Rotterdam’s Feyenoord bars.
Fans stream onto the street, desperate for a photograph, unable to believe their winger is strolling home as if he has finished a shift at the local supermarket. There are no big plans for the evening. Minteh naps, calls family and friends, and as the sun sets, eats his Ramadan meal.
(Top photo: Rico Brouwer/Soccrates/Getty Images)
