Carayol rejects Gambia call up

Mustapha Carayol , a Gambian-Briton who currently plies his trade with the English Conference National club, Torquay United, has turned down the chance to join The Gambia's World Cup qualification campaign.

The former MK Dons starlet Carayol, 19, revealed that he was approached to travel to Gambia for a month of matches and training camps recently.

The winger, who holds a British citizenship was born to a Gambian father and a Senegalese mother and this qualifies him to play for The Gambia.

The Gambia Football Association have confirmed that they have watched Carayol and have been in touch with the teenager whose grandfather is the chairman of The Gambia's Independence Electoral Commission (IEC). But it appears that the player is putting his club before his nation.

Speaking to Herald Express shortly after helping Torquay United to a third successive Blue Square Premier win 2-0 over Eastbourne Borough at the weekend, the pacy left winger said: "The important thing for me at the moment is to establish myself in the first team here, and that had to come before going to the Gambia for a month.

"The boss (Paul Buckle) didn't want me to go either, so that helped to make my mind up.”
"I've never played for Gambia yet, although I would like to one day.”

 "They watched me when we played at Crawley last month and the offer to go out there came after that.”
"I think the best thing for me would be to play for the Under-21s first, but it seems they wanted me to join the first team squad", revealed Carayol whose cousin, Cherno Samba, made his Scorpions debut during Gambia’s 3-0 thumping of Liberia in the 2010 World Cup and Nations Cup qualifier match in early September.