After triumphing in their country's equivalent of the FA Cup, Gambian football club Banjul United gaze proudly into the camera. But two years on from their 2014 victory, the local answer to Arsenal FC is facing an uncertain future - after the departure of half their number on people-smuggling boats to Europe.
One by one, some 25 squad members of the tiny West African nation's top team have left, crossing the Sahara and the Mediterranean in the hope of finding fortune in Europe’s Premier Leagues.
Meanwhile, the performance of the Capital Boys, as their club is nicknamed, has suffered. Having lost all its best players, Banjul Utd was relegated from Division One to Division Two last season.
"About 25 of our squad have left to smuggle themselves into Europe in the last two years," said Omar Touray, 35, the club's head coach. "When we won the cup we were very proud. But since then most of our best players have left and as a result we've been demoted."
The vanishing of soccer talent is part of a mass exodus of migrants from Gambia, best known in Britain today as a winter beach resort. Some are fleeing human rights abuses by Gambia's strongman ruler, President Yahyah Jammeh, who is seeking re-election this Thursday, December 1.
But most are simply desperate to escape the crushing poverty that exists away from the tourist strip. According to the UNHCR, seven per cent of the 130,000 migrants on people-smuggling boats from Libya this year have been Gambians - a disproportionately high figure for a nation of just 1.9m.
The migration has taken a heavy toll on the country's sporting scene, with a number of top athletes taking the "Back Way", as the route to Europe is known locally. In October, Fatima Jawara, 19, a goalkeeper for the Gambian national women's football team, drowned when the boat she was on sank during the crossing to Italy. Then in early November, the same fate claimed the life of Ali "Thousand Franc" Mbengu, a champion in Gambia's popular wrestling scene.
The temptation is greatest of all for top-flight Gambian footballers, who hope to emulate the success of the likes of Modu Barrow, who became the first Gambian player in the English Premier League when he signed to Swansea City in 2014. The average weekly wage of a Swansea City player is £27,000, riches beyond the wildest dreams of players in Gambia's mainly amateur football scene - who, if sponsors are feeling generous, may get a £100 bonus for a cup-winning run.
But while nearly all Gambia's better football clubs have lost a few players - the current Gambia cup holders, Wallidan, have had six or seven take the Back Way - none have suffered as badly as Banjul United.
The club formed just seven years ago to develop talent from Banjul Football Academy, and were promoted to Division One in 2013. Such is their reputation that their dusty training ground in Banjul's KG5 district occasionally receives visits from talent scouts, one of whom signed a winger, Pa Omar Babou, to an Israeli Premier League side, Maccabi Haifa, earlier this year.
But many of the club's young players are not prepared to wait around in the hope of being head-hunted. "I tell them to be patient, but the scout system is too slow for them and they believe things are quicker just by going straight to Italy or Spain or Germany," said Ebou Faye, the club's manager. "When one leaves, others follow."
Part of the problem is that the club's training ground lies just close to a bus terminal frequented by people smugglers. For a fee of around £1,000, they will courier people onwards through Senegal and Mali to the main people-smuggling hub in the city of Agadez in Niger, from where convoys head across the Sahara to the Libyan coast.
"They don't tell us in advance that they're going," said Mr Faye. "Some come to the the club, train as normal and then go straight to the bus station. The next I hear from them is a phone call saying they're already in Mali or Niger."
He said that one player, Musa Sowe, was now playing for Italian division three side Parma, while another two, Sheikh Secka and Bada Mbai, were now playing in minor league clubs. Others have been less fortunate. Earlier this month, word reached the club that a defender, Ebou Touray, died last year crossing the Libyan desert. The fate of most of the other players is unknown, but many are thought to be doing menial work.
The haemorrhaging of Gambia's sporting talent is an embarrassment to President Jammeh, who has ruled Gambia in authoritarian fashion ever since a military coup in 1994. In a report earlier this month, Human Rights Watch accused him of trying to pre-empt the outcome of this week’s elections by jailing and torturing opposition candidates, one of whom died in custody.
Mr Jammeh points out that under his stern rule, Gambia has been spared the civil wars and terrorism that have ravaged much of the rest of the West Africa. Critics say the number of people leaving the country shows that many see no future under his rule.
The thinning ranks of Banjul United are just the tip of the iceberg. In some rural areas, up to a quarter or more of the young people are thought to have taken the Back Way, leading elders to fret about whether their villages will have anyone to harvest crops in coming years.
Meanwhile, back at the Capital Boys' training ground, what is left of the management - an assistant coach has also taken the Back Way - is trying to lick a new young team into shape under team captain Ousman Jayne, 20, one of the few cup-winning players still left.
"We'll be back on top again soon," Mr Jayne smiled. "I felt very tempted to take the Back Way myself - but I don't have the money."
