By Edward Francis Dalliah
The Gambia’s teenage wonderkid Yankuba Minteh on loan from Premier League high-spenders Newcastle United has continued to impress at Feyenoord. Last Sunday 7th April 2024 the electric winger scored his second brace for Feyenoord and provided an assist as his team trashed Dutch League powerhouse Ajax six, nil.
The Scorpion star winger made history in December 2023 when he became the youngest Gambian to net a goal in the Champions League. The striker ranks as the second-highest goal scorer for Feyenoord with ten goals and four assists, surpassed only by Santiago Gimenez with 22 goals.
Minteh scored his first brace against Almere on 25th February 2024 which won him the Goal of the Month for the club. On the hunt for his second brace, the teenager’s lively start proved a handful for Ajax defenders.
His individual brilliance and incisive assist opened the scoring after he tenaciously snatched the ball from an Ajax defender inside his opponent’s half. He then put on the burners, dribbling into the heart of the Ajax defence before releasing an inch-perfect assist for Igor Paixão to roll in a cool finish in the 34th minute.
Starting his team’s second goal barely a minute later, Minteh forced the Ajax defender into a poor pass right into a Feyenoord attacker. He doubled his side’s lead after ghosting into the Ajax box to swipe home a tidy right-footed finish after a brilliant cutback from the byline.
The Feyenoord onslaught continued in the 47th minute with a diving header followed by Minteh’s second wonder goal in the 57th minute. Receiving the ball on the right side of the edge of the Ajax 18-yard box, Minteh wasted no time to cut into his left wand of a foot and unleashed a curling left-footed shot as the hapless keeper looked on.
Speaking to ESPN after the match, Minteh said “today is my day, I think, [the] last game wasn’t that good enough but alhamdulillah I played good, [and] am so happy about it”. Asked about his incredible curling shot, Minteh confidently believes “this has been my quality since I was young”. I have “scored a lot of goals similar to it in The Gambia”, he said.
After scoring three goals, Feyenoord looked unstoppable as a defeated Ajax could only look to the heavens for the final whistle. But this couldn’t stop a Minteh-inspired Feyenoord who doubled their goal tally (six – nil) to record what Dutch media outlets dubbed Ajax’s biggest defeat suffered in the last 97 years.
Scoring in the Champions League and outshining the likes of Mbappe and Vinicius Junior in the dribbling statistics during a Champions League group week, the teenager shot to worldwide stardom with a viable pathway from the academy of Dutch Football to the highly ranked Premier League.
With his loan deal set to expire at the end of the season, there’s no doubt that his performances will attract a lot of suitors. Newcastle fans will be eager for him to showcase his skills in the Premier League. In fact, after the lengthy gambling match ban of Tonali and injuries to attacking players, rumours started circulating that Minteh’s loan could be cut short to don the white and black stripes for his parent club.
When asked by ESPN whether he would like to stay at Feyenoord next season, he said “if I have the chance, of course, I will stay but it depends on what Newcastle is going to decide, not me”.