Gambia national football team

Under the name British Gambia, the team played their first ever game on 9 February 1953 against Sierra Leone, winning 2–1 at home in a friendly.[2] In April 1963, the team entered the L'Amitié tournament in Senegal, a competition mainly for French-speaking nations. They were drawn in a group with France's amateur team, the Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso) and Gabon. Their first match was lost 5–1 to the French amateurs on 11 April. The Gambia drew 2–2 with the Upper Volta on 13 April, and had the same result the very next day versus Gabon. The Gambia did not advance to the next round.

After the tournament in Senegal, The Gambia did not play another match until 16 November 1968, when they travelled to Sierra Leone to play its team in a friendly and lost 2–1. They played again in Sierra Leone in The Gambia's next match on 24 April 1971, and the hosts won 3–1. On 2 May 1971, The Gambia travelled to Guinea for a friendly and lost 4–2. On 14 May 1972, The Gambia returned to Guinea for their first African Games qualifier and lost 8–0 and were knocked out.

In 1975, The Gambia entered its first qualification campaign for the 1976 Summer Olympics in Canada. They were drawn in a qualifier against Guinea, and lost the first leg 1–0 at home on 27 April 1975. The second leg was lost 6–0 in Guinea on 1 June as Guinea advanced 7–0 on aggregate.

In August 1975, The Gambia entered their first qualification for the African Cup of Nations, with the aim of reaching the 1976 finals in Ethiopia. They were drawn in a two-legged qualifier against Morocco and lost the first leg 3–0 away on 10 August. They lost by the same score in their home leg on 24 August and Morocco advanced 6–0 on aggregate.

After the qualification campaign for the 1976 finals, The Gambia played their first match against a full European side, losing a home friendly 4–1 to Denmark on 30 January 1977.[3]

On 12 October 2002, the team got their biggest ever victory in international competition, a 6–0 victory against Lesotho. [4]

In May 2014, The Gambia was banned from all CAF competitions for two years after deliberately falsifying players' ages.[5]

The nation's fortunes improved in qualification for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations. Although they failed to qualify, they took it to the final round of games, including drawing twice with African giants Algeria.

On 13 November, in their first Group D match of 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualification, Gambia defeated Angola 1–3 in Luanda. This was The Scorpions first away win in an AFCON or FIFA World Cup qualifier ever, at their 40th attempt.

Football fans watching Gambia v Guinea

Independence Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Bakau, Gambia. It is currently used mostly for football matches, although it is also used for music concerts, political events, trade fairs and national celebrations. The stadium holds 30,000 people.[6]

The following is a list of match results from the previous 12 months, as well as any future matches that have been scheduled.

  Win   Draw   Loss

2021

Gambia  v  Angola

25 March 2021 AFCONQ	Gambia	1–0	Angola	Bakau, Gambia
16:00 UTC±0	Ceesay  62'	Report		Stadium: Independence Stadium Referee: Adissa Abdul Ligali (Benin)

DR Congo  v  Gambia

29 March 2021 AFCONQ	DR Congo	1–0	Gambia	Kinshasa, DR Congo
17:00 UTC+1	Kasengu  45+2' (pen.)	Report		Stadium: Stade des Martyrs Referee: Amin Mohamed Omar (Egypt)

Niger  v  Gambia

5 June FIFA Friendly	Niger	0–2	Gambia	Manavgat, Turkey
17:00 UTC±0		Report	Jallow  28' Badamosi  90+1'	Stadium: Arslan Zeki Demirci Sports Complex Referee: Abdulkadir Bitigen (Turkey)

Gambia  v  Togo

8 June FIFA Friendly	Gambia	1–0	Togo	Manavgat, Turkey
17:00 UTC+3	Gomez  74'	Report		Stadium: Arslan Zeki Demirci Sports Complex Attendance: 0

Kosovo  v  Gambia

11 June FIFA Friendly	Kosovo	1–0	Gambia	Manavgat, Turkey
17:00 UTC+3	Hoxha  80'	Report		Stadium: Arslan Zeki Demirci Sports Complex Attendance: 0 Referee: Arda Kardeşler (Turkey)

Gambia  v  Sierra Leone

9 October Friendly	Gambia	1–2	Sierra Leone	El Jadida, Morocco
	Ceesay  22'	Report	K. Kamara  24' Fofanah  42'	Stadium: Stade El Abdi

Gambia  v  South Sudan

12 October FIFA Friendly	Gambia	2–1	South Sudan	El Jadida, Morocco
	Ceesay  24' (33)		Lual  87'	Stadium: Stade El Abdi

New Zealand  v  Gambia

16 November FIFA Friendly	New Zealand	2–0	Gambia	Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
20:00	Wood  36', 66'	Report		Stadium: Zayed Sports City Stadium Referee: Sultan Mohamed Al Hammadi (United Arab Emirates)

2022

Mauritania  v  Gambia

12 January 2022 (2022-01-12) 2021 AFCON	Mauritania	v	Gambia	Limbe, Cameroon
				Stadium: Limbe Stadium

Gambia  v  Mali

16 January 2022 (2022-01-16) 2021 AFCON	Gambia	v	Mali	Limbe, Cameroon
				Stadium: Limbe Stadium

Gambia  v  Tunisia

20 January 2022 (2022-01-20) 2021 AFCON	Gambia	v	Tunisia	Limbe, Cameroon
				Stadium: Limbe Stadium

In July 2018, former Togo and Zimbabwe coach Tom Saintfiet, was appointed as head coach. Saintfiet took over from former international Sang Ndong who is now technical director of the Gambia Football Federation (GFF) following the end of his contract in January.[7]

Head Coach	Tom Saintfiet
Team Manager	Ousman Drammeh
Assistant Coach	Alagie Sarr
Assistant Coach	Riedoh Berdien
Physical Coach	Daniele Caleca
Goalkeeper Coach	Alhagie Marong
Goalkeeper Coach	Jo Stock
Team Doctor	Pa Landing
Physiotherapist	Tom Mertens
Physiotherapist	Joppe Vermeulen
Equipment Manager	Mustapha Kassama
Equipment Manager	Robby Echelmeyer
International Scout	Alessandro Soli

As of 11 June 2021[9]

Players in bold are still active with Gambia.

Amilcar Cabral Cup :

• Runners-up (3)

• Official Gambian federation website