An important milestone in Gambian football has been recorded with Norwegian football giant Bodø/Glimt announcing that it has signed the first professional contract with a Gambian player, Assan Sanyang, from its Gambian partner club, the Tijan Jaiteh Football Academy.
A statement from Bodø/Glimt announcing the deal stated: “We have followed Assan closely for several years, just as we have done with other players in the academy, and we have been extremely impressed by how quickly he has adapted to life at Glimt and embraced our training and performance culture.
“In just one or two weeks with us, Assan has made a remarkable impression. He has adapted incredibly quickly and shown qualities that have impressed us so much that we have decided to include him in our Champions League squad for the 2026/27 season. That says a great deal about his potential and qualities, but also about the work that has been put into his development over many years.”
According to Bodø/Glimt, they have enjoyed “a fantastic” partnership with Tijan Jaiteh Football Academy for several years, contributing expertise and close follow-up to help ensure a very high standard of both training and player development.
They added: “Tijan and the people around him are the true driving force behind the project. They possess great football knowledge, and perhaps even more importantly, an enormous passion for the boys and their development, both as footballers and as people. “We are now in the process of taking this exciting partnership several steps further. We can only praise Tijan and what he has built. We have tremendous belief in this partnership, and we are convinced that Assan is only the first of many great stories that we will create together in the years ahead,” the UEFA Champions League-bound Norwegian team, Bodø/Glimt, stated.