Teams from Medina Jambur, Sare Biji and Nema Fullakunda played an appreciation tourney named after former Gambian footballer Alhagie Nyan, also based in Norway.
Faye, himself a former footballer, discovered barefooted youths playing on a dusty sandy field wearing unmatched ordinary T-shirts kicking a flattened ball at Nema during a previous visit.
‘Even by rural standards, I felt that these boys lack basic football materials to play the game they love so much so when I went back to Norway I put the proposal for assistance to Torshov Sports who gave me jerseys some of which I brought to give them today,” he told The Standard at Nema.
Another friend from ‘Admiral’ another entity also gave balls and other materials still waiting to be transported to The Gambia.
Faye teamed up with Gambian friends among them Bakary Dampha Paco the president of the KM football association and an executive member of the GFF who said Mr Faye’s initiative is complementing the GFF’s efforts at grassroots football development.
“This is a big step in uplifting standards in this community and together we shall work with Mr Faye to put in place a strong foundation to harness more assistance from the donors for these and other underprivileged communities in The Gambia.” Dampha said.
Mrs Fatou Nyan who watched the boys play said she was touched by the decision to name the trophy after her husband, a great former Gambian player who played at Starlight and Wallidan. “I think Alhagie Nyan will be very pleased about this honour,” she said while presenting handsome cash prizes to all four teams.
Speaking on behalf of the community,Yankuba Sonko thanked Torshov Sports and Mr Faye for the donations describing it as a good boost for grassroots football development in the area. Nema Fullakunda team A won the trophy beating Medina Jambur 2-1.
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