Sierra Leone national football team

The Sierra Leone national football team represents Sierra Leone in men's international association football and it is governed by the Sierra Leone Football Association, The team's nickname is Leone stars, The team is affiliated to the West African Football Union, The team have never qualified for the FIFA World Cup, however they have qualified for Africa Cup of Nations twice, The team represents both FIFA and Confederation of African Football (CAF).

Sierra Leone

Nickname(s)	Leone Stars
Association	Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA)
Confederation	CAF (Africa)
Sub-confederation	WAFU (West Africa)
Head coach	John Keister
Captain	Umaru Bangura
Most caps	Kemokai Kallon (52)
Top scorer	Mohamed Kallon (14)
Home stadium	Freetown National Stadium
FIFA code	SLE
First colours Second colours
FIFA ranking
Current	116 (10 December 2020)[1]
Highest	50 (August 2014)
Lowest	172 (September 2007)
First international
Sierra Leone 0–2 Nigeria  (Freetown, Sierra Leone; 10 August 1949)[2]
Biggest win
Sierra Leone 5–1 Niger  (Freetown, Sierra Leone; 7 March 1976)  Sierra Leone 5–1 Niger  (Freetown, Sierra Leone; 3 June 1995)  Sierra Leone 4–0 São Tomé and Príncipe  (Freetown, Sierra Leone; 22 April 2000)
Biggest defeat
Mali 6–0 Sierra Leone  (Bamako, Mali; 17 June 2007)
Africa Cup of Nations
Appearances	2 (first in 1994)
Best result	Group stage, 1994 and 1996

History

Sierra Leone's first match was at home on 10 August 1949 against another British colony, Nigeria, and was lost 2–0. In 1954 they played another British colony and British administered U.N trust territory, Gold Coast and Trans-Volta Togoland (now Ghana), and lost 2–0 away. On 22 April 1961, they again hosted Nigeria and lost 4–2. On 12 November 1966, they hosted Liberia in their first match against a non-British colony and earned their first draw, 1–1. A week later, they lost 2–0 in Liberia. On 13 January 1971, Sierra Leone played their first match against a non-African team, West Germany's B-team. The match in Sierra Leone was won 1–0 by the Germans. Sierra Leone's first match outside Africa was also their first against an Asian nation, China. They lost 4–1 in China on 5 April 1974.[3]

Sierra Leone's golden period was during the 1990s, qualifying for both the 1994 and 1996 Africa Cup of Nations. However, they were forced to withdraw from the next two editions due to the Sierra Leone Civil War.

In August 2014, the Sierra Leone FA cancelled all football matches in an effort to stop the spread of the 2014 Ebola virus epidemic in Sierra Leone, a week after the Liberian FA did the same.[4] Sierra Leonean players playing outside Sierra Leone, such as Michael Lahoud playing in the United States, were discriminated against, with opposition players refusing to swap shirts, shake hands and allow them to certain places of the stadium just because they fear that they could be carrying the disease.[5] The Sierra Leonean national team wasn't allowed to play home games and all players had to be foreign-based.[6] In October 2015, Sierra Leone suffered a surprise defeat to Chad in the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, with their home game having to be played in Nigeria. One year later, Sierra Leone very nearly qualified for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations, finishing just one point behind Group I winners Ivory Coast.

On 5 October 2018, the Sierra Leone Football Association was suspended by FIFA and the Leone Stars were excluded from the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualification.

Sierra Leone Football Achievements

Amilcar Cabral Cup :

• 2 Times Champion (1993, 1995)

World Cup record

FIFA World Cup record										FIFA World Cup qualification record
Year	Round	Position	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA		Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
1930 to 1970	Did not enter									Did not enter
1974	Did not qualify									2	0	0	2	0	3
1978										4	1	1	2	8	9
1982										2	0	1	1	3	5
1986										2	0	0	2	0	5
1990	Did not enter									Did not enter
1994	Withdrew									Withdrew
1998	Did not qualify									2	0	0	2	0	2
2002										10	2	1	7	6	17
2006										2	0	1	1	1	2
2010										8	3	2	3	5	8
2014										6	2	2	2	10	10
2018										2	1	0	1	2	2
2022										2	1	0	1	2	3
2026	To be determined									To be determined
Total		0/21								42	10	8	24	37	66

Africa Cup of Nations record

Africa Cup of Nations record
Host nation(s) / Year	Round	Position	Pld	W	D*	L	GF	GA	Squad
1957	Part of United Kingdom
1959
1962	Not affiliated to CAF
1963
1965
1968	Did not enter
1970	Withdrew
1972	Did not enter
1974	Did not qualify
1976	Did not enter
1978	Did not qualify
1980	Did not enter
1982	Did not qualify
1984
1986	Withdrew
1988	Did not qualify
1990	Withdrew
1992	Did not qualify
1994	Round 1	13th	2	0	1	1	1	3	Squad
1996	Round 1	15th	3	1	0	2	2	7	Squad
1998	Withdrew
2000	Disqualified due to civil war
2002	Did not qualify
2004
2006
2008
2010
2012
2013
2015
2017
2019	Disqualified due to FIFA suspension
2021	To be determined
2023
2025
Total	First Round	2/32	5	1	1	3	3	10	−

Recent results and fixtures

  Win   Draw   Loss

Players

Current squad

The following players have been selected for the 2022 African Cup of Nations qualifying matches against Nigeria on 13 and 17 November 2020

Caps and goals as of 17 November 2020, after the game against Nigeria.[7]

No.	Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Goals	Club
	GK	Mohamed Kamara	29 April 1999	5	0	East End Lions
	GK	Unisa Conteh	26 May 1996	0	0	Johansen
	GK	Abubakarr Toma	Unknown	0	0	Bo Rangers
	DF	Umaru Bangura	7 October 1987	45	4	FC Zürich
	DF	Yeami Dunia	16 December 1996	23	0	East End Lions
	DF	Mustapha Dumbuya	7 August 1987	17	0	Tampa Bay Rowdies
	DF	Alie Sesay	25 July 1993	9	0	Zira FK
	DF	Osman Kakay	25 August 1997	5	0	Queens Park Rangers
	DF	Kevin Wright	28 December 1995	3	0	Örebro SK
	DF	Abu Bakarr Samura	10 August 1995	1	0	Kallon
	MF	Medo	16 November 1987	31	1	FC Haka
	FW	Kwame Quee	9 July 1996	19	3	Víkingur Reykjavík
	MF	John Kamara	12 May 1988	17	1	Keşla FK
	MF	Sorie Barrie	11 September 1996	9	0	East End Lions
	MF	Alimamy Bundu	24 February 1997	4	0	East End Lions
	MF	Abu Dumbuya	29 January 1999	3	0	East End Lions
	MF	Sallieu Tarawallie	3 January 1995	2	1	Kallon
	MF	Hassan Koroma	7 November 1998	1	1	Kallon
	MF	Julius Goba	19 May 1999	1	0	Ports Authority
	FW	Kei Kamara	1 September 1984	30	5	Minnesota United
	FW	Alhaji Kamara	16 April 1994	7	5	Randers
	FW	Mohamed Buya Turay	10 January 1995	5	0	Hebei China Fortune
	FW	Mustapha Bundu	27 February 1997	5	2	Anderlecht
	FW	Alhassan Koroma	9 June 1997	4	0	Real Balompédica Linense
	FW	Prince Barrie	18 August 1997	4	0	Bo Rangers

Recent call-ups

The following players have been called up for Sierra Leone in the last 12 months.

Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Goals	Club	Latest call-up
MF	Momoh Conteh	1 December 1999	1	0	Maryland Bobcats	v.  Niger, 13 October 2020
FW	Musa Kamara	6 August 1999	4	0	East End Lions	v.  Mauritania, 9 October 2020
^DEC Player refused to join the team after the call-up. ^INJ Player withdrew from the squad due to an injury. ^PRE Preliminary squad. ^RET Player has retired from international football. ^SUS Suspended from the national team.

Records

As of 1 September 2019

Players in bold text are still active with Sierra Leone.

Most Caps # Player Caps Goals Career 1 Kemokai Kallon 52 4 1992–2006 2 Komba Yomba 50 0 1997–2001 3 Kewullay Conteh 48 2 1996–2011 4 Umaru Bangura 43 4 2006– 5 Marvin Davies 36 9 2006–2015 6 Mahmadu Bah 35 12 2000–2008 7 Kandeh Kan 34 5 2005–2008 8 Mohamed Kallon 33 14 1995–2012 9 Julius Wobay 32 4 2001–2018 10 Medo Kamara 29 1 2011–

Top Goalscorers # Player Goals Caps Career 1 Mohamed Kallon 14 33 1995–2012 2 Mahmadu Bah 12 35 2000–2008

References

1. "The FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking". FIFA. 10 December 2020. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
2. Courtney, Barrie (15 August 2006). "Sierra Leone – List of International Matches". RSSSF. Retrieved 4 November 2010.
3. "Sierra Leone - List of International Matches". rsssf.com. Rec. Sport Soccer Statistics Foundation. 19 November 2015. Retrieved 30 April 2018.
4. "Sierra Leone suspends football matches as Ebola virus spreads". The Independent. 4 August 2014. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
5. "Ebola affecting Sierra Leone team - Michael Lahoud". BBC Sport. 14 October 2014. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
6. FIFATV (14 October 2014). "The land where football is religion" – via YouTube.
7. "Sierra Leone Team 2019". national-football-teams.com. National Football Teams.

Sources

• https://web.archive.org/web/20160305221855/http://www.footballsierraleone.net/sierra-leone-to-host-the-elephants-of-ivory-coast-in-abidjan/
• https://web.archive.org/web/20160405190623/http://www.footballsierraleone.net/sierra-leone-1-malawi-1-international-friendly/

External links

• Football Sierra Leone official site
• Sierra Leone Football Association
• Sierra Leone at FIFA.com
• Sierra Leone at National-Football-Teams.com