Gambia

Gambia 2015-17 Home, matchworn/prepared? U17s
Gambia 2019-23 Home

Ok, so first off they are legally “The Gambia” but FIFA’s rankings refer to them just as Gambia (which is the river around which the country is based) so that’s what I’ll do.

Yes, it is a template, simple red and white stripes across the front with white across the top and bottom to both highlight the classic Adidas 3 stripes (which are also mirrored in the front pattern) and keep the bottom of the shirt one step above plain. Unless you count the fantastic FA logo, there’s nothing particularly special about it, but it does work fairly nicely. The rear of the shirt only really works with the numbers though, totally plain otherwise.

Used across 2018 World Cup qualifiers and 2017 AFCON qualifiers, the design didn’t oversee much success. Their World Cup journey ended at the very first hurdle, a 1-1 home draw followed up by a 2-1 away loss to Namibia sending them out in CAF’s typical knockout setup. Little was expected of them in AFCON qualifiers, in a group with South Africa, Cameroon and Mauritania. Despite a superb opening 0-0 away draw in South Africa, they only managed a 0-0 home draw to Mauritania to add to that. Matches were generally close, 2 being single goal losses and one by 2 goals, but they only scored 1 goal in 6 games and comfortably finished bottom.

At first glance, the shirt is fairly plain, with a little bit of asymmetry. There is a slightly broken up striped pattern on it, but it is next to impossible to see. The right sleeve has a white shoulder and cuff plus a Saller logo, while the left side has a few rectangles and another Saller logo. Details are all transfers, though the Gambia have a great logo. A nice shirt, but disappointing that the real detail isn’t very obvious.

Again used across AFCON and World Cup qualifiers (2021 and 2022 editions), WCQ started them in the first round, drawing them against Angola. They lost 1-0 at home and 2-1 away to get first rounded once more. 2021 AFCON qualifiers went a little better. They entered at the preliminary stage, drawing 1-1 home and away to Djibouti to win on penalties. However, the group stage against Angola, Gabon and DRC, where they would be expected to do poorly, went superbly. In a tight group, with the top 3 separated by a single point (top 2 qualify), The Gambia managed 7 points at home, only dropping points in a 2-2 draw with DRC (where they equalised deep in stoppage time), and an away win in Angola proved enough for them to top the group, qualifying for their first ever AFCON!

The performance of the earlier shirt is more typical for The Gambia, having gone out at the first stage of qualification for every World Cup attempt to date and regularly struggling in AFCON qualification. Prior to 2021, they had some very good results in AFCON qualifiers, but still typically fell short. At their best, in 2008 and 2010 qualification, they came close to qualifying, just falling short of the final round in 2010 (to a team that qualified) and 3 points short in a tough group for 2008. They don’t always enter though, with a mixture of withdrawals and bans stymying their efforts.

The Gambia’s first competitive women’s international came in 2018 AFCON qualification. They traded 2-1 home wins with Burkina Faso, winning on penalties to face the terrifying Nigeria for an AFCON spot. A 1-0 loss at home to the team that’s barely ever lost in African competition was great but they were swept away 6-0 in the away leg. 2020 qualification has been postponed, but they’ve been drawn against Guinea-Bissau. Men’s youth football has been a tremendous success, with sporadic but significant results. They came 3^rd in the 2007 U20 Championship, going on to beat New Zealand and Portugal at the U20 World Cup and only being knocked out narrowly by Austria in the Round of 16. From 4 qualifications they have 2 U17 titles, being short on goal difference from the knockouts at the 2005 U17 World Cup (after beating Brazil!) and gaining a draw against Colombia in 2009. Women’s youth football is limited to 3 qualifying attempts. First for the 2012 U17 World Cup, where they edged Sierra Leone and beat Tunisia to qualify for the world Cup but heavily lost every game. Second for the 2018 U17 Championship where they beat Sierra Leone 3-0 at home and then won on a walkover; before being thrashed 7-1 by Ghana over two legs in the next round. Third for the 2020 U20 Championships where a 3-2 loss and a 0-0 draw knocked them out immediately against Burkina Faso.

As with plenty of CAF members, they’ve never participated in futsal or beach soccer competitively and are not expected to in short order.

They were expected to fall in 2022 qualifiers and did so in short order. Their 2021 AFCON qualification performance and resultant AFCON performance, however, blew expectations out of the water and very much proved to be the redemption The Gambia were after!