Musa Barrow: in-form forward thriving at Al Taawoun after shining in Serie A

One of the biggest stories of the 2023-24 Roshn Saudi League was the incredible fourth-placed finish of Al Taawoun, an achievement few people saw coming at the onset of the season.

With the now-departed Brazilian manager Pericles Chamusca in charge, the side from Buraidah threw the script out the window, finishing five points clear of defending champions Al Ittihad. In the end, their RSL record read an impressive 16 wins, 11 draws and seven defeats across the 34-game campaign.

Of course, to perform as they did throughout the entirety of the season means that very few players underdelivered, with Al Taawoun boasting a slew of standout performances across the pitch. But one of the best, if not the best, was Gambian international Musa Barrow.

The raw statistics of six goals and two assists might, at first glance, appear par for the course for a forward of his repute, yet Barrow’s role in the functioning of Chamusca’s attack was a significant reason Al Taawoun were able to do what they did.

With Chamusca departing in the off-season – he was eventually appointed at ambitious First Division League club NEOM - and replaced by former Al Wasl and UAE manager Rodolfo Arruabarrena, the biggest question coming into the 2024-25 campaign was whether Al Taawoun were a one-hit wonder, or whether they could back up last season’s superb showing.

The early evidence suggests they can, and all this while competing on multiple fronts after their qualification for the inaugural edition of the newly launched AFC Champions League Two (Barrown scored a double last month in the club's opening win against Bahrain's Al Khaldiya).

Entering the present FIFA international break, Arruabarrena’s side sit fifth following a 2-0 win against struggling Al Fateh to provide a boost as the RSL entered its two-week hiatus.

And, once again, Barrow is playing a leading role in their success. Indeed, he taking his output to even greater heights than last season. While in 2023-24 the frontman scored six goals in 21 matches, he’s already found the net three times in the opening six games this time around, running at a goal every other game.

One of those was the screamer at Al Ittihad in Matchweek 2, a game in which Barrow collected the first of three Man of the Match awards this season. Looking at purely goals, though, if Barrow can keep his form going, it places him on track for a double-digit campaign. And that could be huge for Al Taawoun’s overall objectives.

That the talented African, 25, is able to hit these heights should come as no surprise, however.

Having honed his ability playing street football in Gambia, Barrow moved to Italy in 2016, joining the youth academy at Atalanta. After debuting for the senior team at the beginning of 2018, he soon made his Serie A bow and, in that first half a season, scored three times in the league.

Although he netted only once in the top tier in the 2018-19 campaign, Barrow did score four goals in six UEFA Europa League matches; months later, he made his first appearance, and only, appearance in the UEFA Champions League.

Then, in January 2020, Barrow switched to fellow Serie A side Bologna, initially on loan. It was then his career in one of Europe's lead leagues truly took off. In the second half of 2019-20, the then-20-year-old forward earned a reputation as a rising star, scoring nine goals along with four assists to conclude the campaign as the Bologna's top scorer.

His remarkable return had people comparing him to one of Italy’s best strikers of the modern era.

"He is similar to the Ciro Immobile, a player who moves a lot on the whole attacking front," Massimo Brambilla, who coached Barrow in the youth teams of Atalanta, told BBC Sport Africa in 2020. "Now Immobile has become an even more complete striker, though.

"[Barrow] is still very young, so he can and will have to improve all aspects of his game: how he moves without the ball, how he covers spaces and how he helps the team. What is even more important, he knows where the goal is and how to score, which is an essential quality for a striker."

For that, Barrow proved his impressive debut season was no flash in the pan; he registered another eight-goal haul in the Covid-19-impacted 2020-21 campaign.

"He is a massive player; after the lockdown he's been unstoppable," Italy international and former Bologna teammate Riccardo Orsolini told BBC Sport Africa. "When he has the ball, we all feel something important can happen at any time.

"I knew him before he signed for us - I knew he was a great player - but he did surprise us all. He adapted to our game very easily and he had a tremendous impact. He can move forward very well with the ball at his feet, and he can play with both feet.

"I am more of a winger than him; Musa did so well starting from wide left, taking to the centre and scoring from there. But he has all it takes to play in the middle, too."

There was a time when some of the most prominent clubs in the world, including Real Madrid, were rumoured to be interested in luring Barrow from Italy. Teams such as Fulham and Galatasaray were also credited with showing a keen interest before Al Taawoun lured him to the Kingdom in September last year. It represented another coup for the RSL in a summer full of them.

At only midway through his twenties, Barrow’s best years are most probably still ahead of him, which for fans of Al Taawoun is a tantalising prospect. Can he spearhead them to another top four finish this season?

The way Barrow has begun 2024-25, it certainly would appear so.