Omar Colley

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Omar Colley
Colley with Beşiktaş, 2023
Personal information
Full name Omar Colley Daniel
Date of birth (1992-10-24) 24 October 1992 (age 33)
Place of birth Lamin, The Gambia
Height 1.91 m (6 ft 3 in)[1]
Position Centre-back
Team information
Current team
 Al-Diriyah
Number 15
Youth career
Jattas
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2010–2011 Wallidan 15 (0)
2012 Real de Banjul 17 (1)
2013–2014 KuPS 57 (5)
2015–2016 Djurgårdens IF 44 (5)
2016–2018 Genk 54 (3)
2018–2023 Sampdoria 129 (3)
2023–2024 Beşiktaş 34 (7)
2024–2025 PAOK 8 (0)
2025– Al-Diriyah 0 (0)
International career‡
2009 Gambia U17 8 (2)
2011 Gambia U20 10 (0)
2012– Gambia 62 (1)
* Club domestic league appearances and goals as of 12 May 2025
‡ National team caps and goals as of 23:33, 19 September 2025 (UTC)

Omar Colley (born 24 October 1992) is a Gambian professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Saudi First Division League club Al-Diriyah and captains the Gambia national team.

Club career

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Gambian clubs

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Colley started out playing youth football with Wallidan FC who are a part of his home country's top flight GFA League First Division.[2] After he started playing for the first team he trialed with Major League Soccer club Sporting Kansas City on two occasions in 2010 and 2011.[3] The Americans wanted to sign Colley but refused to pay any form of transfer fee or training compensation to his Gambian club. Wallidans founder called their offer "out of touch with modern football" and "an insult to the local clubs"[4] so Colley instead moved to Real de Banjul where he helped the team become Gambian champions in 2012.[5]

KuPS

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In January 2013, he signed a two-year contract with Kuopion Palloseura (KuPS) in Finnish Veikkausliiga.[5] During the time between his two seasons in Finland he trialed with a couple of 2. Bundesliga clubs and Arminia Bielefeld made an offer to buy Colley. An agreement was not reached however as they could not agree on the transfer fee.[6] As his contract with the Finnish club was nearing the end Colley was described as "perhaps our best foreign signing ever" by the KuPS club president.[7]

Djurgårdens IF and Genk

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In August 2014, Colley signed a three-year contract with Swedish side Djurgårdens IF, starting the first of January 2015.[8] He played his debut game for the club on 22 February 2015 against Ängelholms FF in the Swedish Cup.[9] On 12 August 2016, Colley travelled to Belgium to complete a medical with top-tier club K.R.C. Genk and by doing that Colley missed the training session ahead of the match versus IF Elfsborg which was against the will of Djurgården.[10] Later that day the Director of Sport of Djurgården Bo Andersson told the football site Fotbollskanalen.se that Djurgården were prepared to take the case to FIFA due to the fact that Genk without the permission and knowledge of Djurgården booked a flight and hotel for Colley which violated the contract between Colley and Djurgården. Andersson stated that Djurgården would refuse to sell Colley to Genk after that incident.[11] On 14 August, Colley started the match against IF Elfsborg on the bench due to the recent event.[12] The following day Colley was sold to Genk despite the promise not to sell Colley to Genk. The transfer sum was reported by the Swedish newspaper Expressen to be €2 million and a resale clause which would make Colley the third most expensive defender ever sold by an Allsvenskan team after former Djurgården player Daniel Amartey and IF Elfsborg player Jon Jönsson.[13]

Sampdoria

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On 19 June 2018, he signed for Italian club Sampdoria.[14]

Beşiktaş

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On 9 February 2023, Turkish club Beşiktaş announced the signing of Colley to a contract until the end of the 2024–25 season, with a conditional one-year extension option based on performance. The transfer fee announced was 2.3 million euros.[15]

Al-Diriyah

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On 23 July 2025, Colley joined Saudi First Division League club Al-Diriyah.[16]

International career

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Colley was part of the Gambia national under-17 football team that won the 2009 African U-17 Championship as well as the Gambia national under-20 football team that played in the 2011 African Youth Championship.[3] In 2012, he made his debut for the senior Gambia national team in a friendly game against Angola.[17] He played in the 2021 Africa cup of Nations, his national team's first continental tournament, where they made a sensational quarter-final.[18][19]

Career statistics

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Club

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As of 10 April 2025
Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League Cup[a] Other[b] Continental Total
Division Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Wallidan 2011 GFA League First Division 15 0 – – – 15 0
Real de Banjul 2012 GFA League First Division 17 1 – – – 17 1
KuPS 2013 Veikkausliiga 26 2 4 0 8 1 – 38 3
2014 Veikkausliiga 32 4 2 0 2 0 – 36 4
Total 58 6 6 0 10 1 0 0 74 7
Djurgården 2015 Allsvenskan 27 3 3 0 – – 30 3
2016 Allsvenskan 17 2 3 0 – – 20 2
Total 44 5 6 0 0 0 0 0 50 5
Genk 2016–17 Belgian First Division A 35 3 4 0 – 13[c] 1 52 4
2017–18 Belgian First Division A 38 1 5 0 – – 43 1
Total 73 4 9 0 0 0 13 1 95 5
Sampdoria 2018–19 Serie A 21 0 2 0 – – 23 0
2019–20 Serie A 31 0 1 0 – – 32 0
2020–21 Serie A 29 2 1 0 – – 30 2
2021–22 Serie A 32 0 1 0 – – 33 0
2022–23 Serie A 16 1 2 0 – – 18 1
Total 129 3 7 0 0 0 0 0 136 3
Beşiktaş 2022–23 Süper Lig 10 0 – – – 10 0
2023–24 Süper Lig 22 7 3 0 – 8[d] 1 33 8
2024–25 Süper Lig 2 0 1 0 – – 3 0
Total 34 7 4 0 0 0 8 1 46 8
PAOK 2024–25 Super League Greece 8 0 0 0 – 5[c] 0 13 0
Career total 378 26 32 0 10 1 26 2 446 29
  1. ^ Includes Suomen Cup, Svenska Cupen, Belgian Cup, Coppa Italia, Turkish Cup
  2. ^ Includes Finnish League Cup and Turkish Super Cup
  3. ^ a b Appearances in UEFA Europa League
  4. ^ Appearances in UEFA Conference League

International

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As of match played 9 September 2025[20]
Appearances and goals by national team and year
National team Year Apps Goals
Gambia 2012 1 0
2013 5 0
2015 2 0
2016 3 0
2017 2 0
2018 1 0
2019 8 0
2020 3 0
2021 7 0
2022 10 0
2023 6 1
2024 10 0
2025 4 0
Total 62 1
As of match played 28 March 2023. Gambia score listed first, score column indicates score after each Colley goal.[20]
List of international goals scored by Omar Colley
No. Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition
1 28 March 2023 Stade Mohammed V, Casablanca, Morocco  Mali 1–0 1–0 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualification

Honours

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Beşiktaş

Gambia U17

References

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  18. ^ -cup-of-nations/matches/2021/2243295/lineups Line ups cafonline.com
  19. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  20. ^ a b Omar Colley at National-Football-Teams.comLua error in Module:EditAtWikidata at line 29: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
  21. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
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  • Omar Colley at SoccerwayLua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 29: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
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