born in guinea-bissau, damba began his footballing career with sewe sports of the ivorian league. afterwards, he signed for the ca bastia reserve team and earned promotion to the first team in 2013, making six appearances in the 2013–14 ligue 2, with three more the following season, before transferring to us raon-l'étape in 2015 along with defender adnane sahrane. at first, the forward intended to stay at bastia but this was implausible because he did not have an agent at the time.