Tiberias to Promote Gambian Winger Mansour Badji to Premier League Squad

Mansour Badji, a 21-year-old Gambian winger, is set to receive his first chance in Israel's Premier League after two loan seasons with Maccabi Yafa. According to Sport5, Ironi Tiberias will not loan him out again and instead plan to move him into the senior squad for the 2026/27 season.

Badji began his path in a football academy in Gambia and arrived in Israel in the summer of 2023, joining Maccabi Haifa's youth system. Haifa released him after just one month, and he then moved to Tiberias' youth team, which was then playing in the northern division of the national youth league. His rise is being framed in Tiberias as a comeback story after that early setback.

The article compares him with his former rival Jocelyn Tabi, who was sold in January to Sunderland for 4 million euros. In the 2023/24 youth season, Badji and Tabi faced each other, with Tabi starring for Beitar Tubruk before his breakthrough at Hapoel Petah Tikva. Badji led Tiberias that year, scoring 17 league goals and 19 in all competitions, and beat Tabi in the scoring race.

After two seasons at Maccabi Yafa, where he scored 3 goals and added 7 assists in the National League this season, Tiberias believe Badji could become one of the hottest names in Israeli football and later generate a major profit. He already has interest from abroad, is under contract for the next three seasons, and has no release clause. He is currently one of three foreigners signed for 2026/27, alongside Ondrej Bačo and Sambinha, and Tiberias are expected to sign five more foreign players soon as part of an unusually active summer transfer window.