The Gambia’s greatest and first-ever professional player, Momodou Njie, better known as Biri Biri, has told some visiting Norwegian young footballers that he was a gifted player who had all the qualities a good footballer needs to become a complete player.

Recalling his footballing days in Europe in the early 1970’s, Biri Biri said he will never forget the legacy he left behind in the top European clubs at a time when Africans only saw football as a leisure activity.

The 61-year-old legend was speaking to the group who are in the country for a three-week sports-related visit. “I was the first Gambian to play professional football overseas when I signed for Danish club B1901 in 1972,” Biri told the curious visitors at his house located on Perseverance Street in Banjul yesterday.

“The team spotted me when they came to Banjul for a training camp. I later left the Danish club to join Seville in Spain,” he added. He continued: "My best moment in my career was when I helped Seville to gain promotion to the Spanish first division league in my second year with the club and I was the first black player to play for the club.”

Mr Babou Sarr, the country director of Education through Culture & Communication Organisation (ECCO),  an international NGO, facilitated the Scandanavians’ visit to The Gambia. Mr Sarr said his guests, upon arrival, were very eager to meet the player who put the Gambia on the footballing map  decades back. Speaking on behalf of his colleagues after the brief meeting, Jens Gjonnes, one of the players, said they were honoured to meet Biri Biri. He said this was the first time they  had met a player who had reached such a high scale in international football.

He finally thanked Biri and his family for the warm welcome bestowed on them. After a successful stint in Europe, Biri Biri returned to the Gambia in 1981 to join Walidan FC. Before his time in Europe, Biri  played for Black Diamonds, Phantoms and Augustines  as well as Mighty Blackpool of Sierra Leone.
 
He retired from football in 1987 before being appointed the deputy mayor of his town of birth, Banjul, in 1994. In 2000, he was given the order of merit by the Gambian leader, Professor Dr Alhaji Yahya Jammeh, as the country's greatest footballer of the last millennium and of all time.