A MEMBER of the Senegalese World Cup football team was offered a trip to the island after he bumped into Bermuda Football Association president Larry Mussenden in South Korea.

According to a story published by UK national Sunday newspaper The Observer, midfielder Amdy Faye met the lawyer in the capital city of Seoul after he left the team hotel to kill some time.

And Mr. Mussenden, who is in the Far East as a guest of soccer's world governing body FIFA, did not allow a substantial language barrier to get in the way of his chance meeting with a World Cup player.

The diary-style feature, by James Copnall, tells how players' wives have travelled to Korea with the Senegal team.

It reads: "The presence of the wives does not suit reserve midfielder Amdy Faye at all. Faye's other half has just given birth to their first child, a son, and has stayed in France to look after him.

"Faye is sharing with left-back Omar Daf, who is currently in their room with his wife, who did make the trip. Faye is forced to seek ways of spinning out time; 'Perhaps I'll go for a little stroll,' he says.

"He soon finds himself an ideal time-killing device in the person of Larry Mussenden, the president of the Bermuda FA, who is desperate to meet a real-life football hero.

"Larry speaks no French, Amdy a few words of English, but a translator is soon found. Larry has French friends back in Bermuda and is determined to get a Senegalese international to speak to them on the phone.

"Faye goes up to the Bermudian's room with good grace (it will waste some time after all) but is slightly perplexed, when, after all, Larry's French friends are out, he finds himself on the phone to someone who clearly stopped learning French at school. 'Tell him who you are,' says Larry, and the midfielder, who did not even play against France, repeats his identity several times with impressive restraint.

"His reward is the offer of a trip to Bermuda for him and his wife."

Senegal, playing in their first World Cup finals, stunned the football world when they defeated world champions France in the tournament's opening game.

Faye, a reserve player, has spent most of his time in Korea on the substitutes' bench but did come on as a second-half substitute in the thrilling 3-3 draw with Uruguay which sealed Senegal's place in the second round.