Al Bangura

Midfielder

Al Bangura’s arrival on a two year contract to The New Lawn in July 2011 marked one of the highest profile arrivals ever at Forest Green as the former Premier League starlet was reunited with manager Dave Hockaday at Rovers.

The former Sierra Leone international worked with Hockaday in the youth system at former club Watford where he burst on to the scene as an 18 year old, playing a pivotal role in the Watford side that earned promotion to the Premier League and with it winning the ‘Young Player of theYear’ award at the Vicarage Road club.

Al made 62 league appearances in total for Watford, of which 16 of these were in the Premier League, and after a loan spell at Brighton & Hove Albion he left the Hornets at the end of the 2008-09 season.

He joined Blackpool in a short term move before leaving England to spend time in the top flight of Turkish football with MersinIdmanyurdu SK but was again quickly on the move when he joined Azerbaijani Premier Division side Gabala – playing under the management of former Englandand Arsenal defender Tony Adams.

It was in the summer of 2011 though that Al returned to England so he could link back up with Dave Hockaday at Forest Green although his career with Rovers started disappointingly with a knee injury picked up in training requiring surgery and a further knee problem midway through the 2011-12 season keeping him out for much of the campaign.

Al hit the headlines in 2007 when a national campaign that was launched to help keep him in the United Kingdom after being threatened with deportation gained support from Watford club president Sir Elton John and then Home Secretary David Blunkett.

He won his fight to stay in the country as he feared that he would be killed if he was to return to Sierra Leone and is a hugely popular figure with both Watford and Forest Green supporters.

Sponsored by

• Home:
• Away:
• Third: