Fatim Jawara has drowned in the Mediterranean Sea ©Jennifer O'Mahony/Twitter

The 19-year-old goalkeeper of Gambia’s national women’s football team has drowned in the Mediterranean Sea as she attempted to reach Europe to start a new life.

Fatim Jawara was on board a boat that ran into trouble last month while crossing from Libya to Europe, the Gambian Football Federation (GFF) has said. 

Jawara made her debut with the national women's side a year ago against a team from the Scottish city of Glasgow.

"We are grieving at the moment as this is a great loss to the national soccer team and the nation," GFF President Lamin Kaba Bajo told AFP.

"She will be remembered for saving a penalty kick in a friendly encounter involving the national soccer team and the Glasgow Girls from Scotland."

Jawara was a member of the squad that represented The Gambia in the 2012 Under-17 World Cup in Azerbaijan, having first joined the team in 2009.

Chorro Mbenga, who was the assistant coach of that side, told AFP: "Her death is untimely, but we will remember her for her great performances on the pitch."

Jawara is reported to have departed Gambia in September to cross the Sahara desert and head for Libya, where the majority of African migrants start the sea crossing to Europe.

Fatim Jawara was on board a boat that ran into trouble last month while crossing from Libya to Europe ©GFF
Fatim Jawara was on board a boat that ran into trouble last month while crossing from Libya to Europe ©GFF

Gambians represent the fourth-largest group of undocumented migrants who arrive in Italy, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

This is despite their country being one of Africa’s smallest with a population of approximately 1.8 million.

More than 3,300 migrants fleeing conflict and poverty have died or gone missing in the Mediterranean this year, figures from the IOM show.

In August, meanwhile, two members of Guinea’s Olympic team disappeared from the Rio 2016 Athletes’ Village and did not return home. 

Atef Chaloub, a member of the National Olympic and Sports Committee of Guinea (CNOSG), told Reuters that swimmer Amadou Camara and judoka Mame Adama Bangoura stayed in Brazil.

It is possible they have become illegal economic migrants, continuing a trend of African athletes going abroad for Olympic competition and remaining in the host country.

More than a dozen athletes from Cameroon, Eritrea, Guinea and the Ivory Coast went missing from the London 2012 Athletes’ Village.