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Sanfit’s love for African football dates back to 1982, when he was just 9 years old.
His earliest memory of football comes from a World Cup sticker booklet that featured the names and jersey designs of the Algerian and Cameroonian players, and as he got older he satisfied his thirst for knowledge by reading hard-to-find copies of African Football magazine.
Decades later, he still has them.
“I treasured the information,” he admitted, “There was no internet back then, so they gave it to you.”
“I bought them in the 90s and early 2000s.”
At 24, he was already a head coach and soon after, he made his first foray into Africa.
“Then I faxed this 26-year-old guy an application for a job in Zimbabwe. I still have the fax paper and their response.”
It wasn’t until he was in his thirties that Sanfit finally found a job using a fax machine, and in 2008 he was appointed President of Namibia.
He has had a colourful journey since then, both on and off the pitch, earning a reputation for raising performance and expectations from low starting points – a performance best illustrated during his time with The Gambia from 2018 to 2023.
“I told the president and the vice president that I’m here to get the qualifications,” he said of his ambitions.
“They both looked at me in amazement and said ‘Coach, we haven’t won in five years – come on, let’s try to win a game first.’
“They didn’t trust me because they had never qualified for a tournament in 60 years. At that point, their trust level was almost zero.”
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