“Bergkamp was just technically out of this world. He was the player that most impressed me. He could do anything with the ball. Ian Wright, character-wise, he was just a winner. He mentored the squad in any moment and any training session.

“There was a mix of everything in that team. You had Tony Adams who was the leader. Martin Keown, the fighter.”

Muntasser might have only managed that one game for the Arsenal but it was enough to get him noticed by the national press back home, and to garner attention from more exalted quarters.

“I played [for the national team] later because of what that game did for me,” he says.

“Even though it was a few minutes, at that time, I think I was the first Arab player to play in a Premiership club. So, it was not a common thing.

“Nowadays you have Egyptians, you have everyone, but at that time there were none. So, for me I was centre of attention and then the media in Libya started writing and then the son of Gaddafi [Al-Saadi] called my family.

“He asked if I would like to come back to Libya because obviously at that time I had never thought of going back due to the political situation. In the end I decided to go and started playing internationally and I did really well with the national team. We had a good team and football was starting to become popular again.

Al-Saadi Gaddafi Al-Saadi Gaddafi

“[General Muammar] Gaddafi himself didn’t want football at all. He had his own view about football and about society in general. At a certain point I believe the names of players was not allowed to be mentioned on TV in the game. So, they would be like No.7, No.6.

“His son came in and he brought back some passion and some money into the game, so it was the beginning of a new era for football and [even] today people recognise me and remember the team that we had as a national team. We did quite well. We qualified to play in the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).”

Al-Saadi Gaddafi would go on to earn a notorious reputation as a player in Serie A where he played in a game against Juventus and was suspended for failing a doping test. He was also an occasional participant for Libya's national team.

“In that particular national team he didn’t play,” he says. “He played some friendly games with the national team. He was in Italy playing for Udinese, Perugia. He tried to be considered as a normal player. But obviously it was undeniable that we all knew he was the son of the country’s leader or whatever you want to call it. It’s not a normal situation of course.

“He was in Perugia I think at a different time. I was there before him and then went on loan to other clubs. So we never really played together in Italy.”

Libya’s one and only qualification for the AFCON came in 2006, a huge achievement for a football-mad country, but an adventure destined to end in disappointment from the off.

“We were unlucky,” he says. “We entered the group with both teams that were finalists because it was Ivory Coast and Egypt. So, we were facing already the best two teams in the tournament.”