Hart Acedemy

Hart Academy reached the Gambian top flight by a route that ran entirely through the Lower River Region. A 2022 championship in the LRR Third Division Qualifiers sent the club into the national Second Division; two seasons later, in 2023/24, a second-place finish there was enough to go up again. No club from outside the capital area had reached the First Division before Hart Academy did it.

The name states its purpose plainly. Bakari Baldeh, a teacher, set the club up in February 2016 as a football academy for young players in Jarra. Matches are played some way off, in the settlement of Soma, at the Soma Mini Stadium, which TheSportsDB lists at 1,500 seats.

The debut First Division campaign, 2024/25, closed with seventh place on 40 points. In the Gambia Cup that year the run went a round further, to the quarter-final, before Hawks FC ended it 2-0. The nearest thing to a local rivalry is Greater Tomorrow FC, based in the same town, though the fixture has no derby name in the Gambian press.

The academy that gave the club its name has since produced players of its own. Ebrima Barry, a midfielder, is the one named most often, ahead of Saikouba Jarjue, Sheriff Jallow and Nfansu Dibba, when Hart's graduates come up in that coverage.