Sainey Nyassi (born January 31, 1989) is a Gambian professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who plays as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

Club career

Sainey Nyassi began his career in the Gambia, playing in the GFA League First Division for

Gambia Ports Authority The Gambia Ports Authority (GPA) is a government agency responsible for the governance and maintenance of the ports and port facilities of the Gambia, principally that of the Port of Banjul on the Gambia River. The GPA was founded in 1972 and it ...

. Nyassi was scouted by

New England Revolution The New England Revolution is an American professional soccer club based in the Greater Boston area that competes in Major League Soccer (MLS), in the Eastern Conference of the league. It is one of the ten charter clubs of MLS, having compet ...

head coach

Steve Nicol ''yes'Steve is a masculine given name, usually a short form (hypocorism) of Steven or Stephen Notable people with the name include: steve jops * Steve Abbott (disambiguation), several people * Steve Adams (disambiguation), several people * Steve ...

while playing in the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup, and signed with the Revolution shortly thereafter along with his Gambian teammate,

Kenny Mansally Abdoulie Kenny Mansally (born 27 January 1989) is a Gambian footballer. He is featured on the Gambian national team in the official 2010 FIFA World Cup video game. Professional career New England Revolution Mansally began his career in The ...

. He made his MLS debut on September 9, 2007 against

D.C. United D.C. United is a professional soccer club based in Washington, D.C. that competes in the Eastern Conference of Major League Soccer, the top tier of American soccer. Domestically, the club has won four MLS Cups (league championships), four Supp ...

as a substitute, playing the final eight minutes on the right wing. He made his first start and scored his first MLS goal on March 29, 2008 in the Revs' 3-0 opening day victory over

Houston Dynamo Houston Dynamo FC (formerly officially, but still commonly, called the Houston Dynamo) is an American professional soccer club based in Houston. The Dynamo compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference. Establi ...

. Nyassi was released by New England on May 16, 2013. On May 27, 2013, Nyassi signed with

. On June 9, 2014, Nyassi signed for Finnish Club

RoPS Rops may refer to: People * Daniel-Rops (1901–1965), French writer and historian * Félicien Rops (1833–1898), Belgian artist Places * Rops (peak), a mountain in Kosovo Sports * Rovaniemen Palloseura (RoPS), a Finnish football club Tech ...

. Nyassi signed with

FC Edmonton FC Edmonton was a Canadian professional soccer club based in Edmonton, Alberta. The club was founded in 2010 and competed in the North American Soccer League (NASL) from 2011 to 2017. The club went on hiatus when NASL ceased competitive operat ...

in February 2015. He spent three seasons in Edmonton. After the 2017 season, with the future of FC Edmonton and the NASL in doubt, Nyassi was released by the club.

International career

Nyassi has represented his nation at various youth levels. He played for the Gambian U-17 national team in the 2005 U-17 world championships, and for the U-20 national team in the 2007 U-20

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

Championships. He scored his first goal for the Senior national team on September 4, 2010 in the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations qualification match against

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

International goals

:''Scores and results list Gambia's goal tally first.''

Personal life

Sainey is the twin brother of fellow professional footballer

Sanna Nyassi Sanna Nyassi (born 31 January 1989) is a Gambian professional footballer who plays as a forward. He played for the Gambia national team from 2010 to 2015, making fourteen appearances. Club career Gambia Ports Authority Nyassi began his ...

. Nyassi received his U.S green card on January 31, 2012, which qualified him as a domestic player for MLS roster purposes.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nyassi, Sainey 1989 births Living people Association football midfielders Gambian footballers The Gambia international footballers The Gambia youth international footballers New England Revolution players D.C. United players Rovaniemen Palloseura players FC Edmonton players Gambian twins Identical twins Gambian expatriate footballers Expatriate soccer players in the United States Expatriate footballers in Finland Expatriate soccer players in Canada Major League Soccer players Veikkausliiga players North American Soccer League players Gambian expatriates in the United States Gambia Ports Authority FC players