The Sierra Leone national football team represents

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...

in men's international

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

and it is governed by the

Sierra Leone Football Association The Sierra Leone Football Association is the governing body of football in Sierra Leone. It was founded in 1960 (current association), and affiliated to FIFA the same year. It organizes and runs the national leagues, including the Sierra Leone N ...

. The team's nickname is Leone Stars. The team is affiliated to the

West African Football Union The West African Football Union (french: Union des Fédérations Ouest-Africaines de Football; pt, União das Federações Oeste Africanas), officially abbreviated as WAFU-UFOA and WAFU, is an association of the football playing nations in West ...

. The team have never qualified for the

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

; however, they have qualified for

Africa Cup of Nations The Africa Cup of Nations referred to as AFCON (french: Coupe d'Afrique des Nations, sometimes referred to as CAN, or TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons), and sometimes as African Cup of Nations, is the main internati ...

thrice. The team represents both

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

and

Confederation of African Football The Confederation of African Football, or CAF for short (french: link=yes, Confédération Africaine de Football, ar, link=yes, الاتحاد الأفريقي لكرة القدم, al-Ittiḥād al-Afrīqī li-Kurat al-Qadam), is the administ ...

(CAF).

History

Sierra Leone's first match was at home on 10 August 1949 against another British colony,

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

, and was lost 2–0. In 1954 they played another British colony and British administered U.N trust territory,

Gold Coast Gold Coast may refer to: Places Africa * Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana: ** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642) ** Dutch G ...

and

Trans-Volta Togoland British Togoland, officially the Mandate Territory of Togoland and later officially the Trust Territory of Togoland, was a territory in West Africa, under the administration of the United Kingdom, which subsequently entered into union with Ghana ...

(now

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

), and lost 2–0 away. On 22 April 1961, they again hosted Nigeria and lost 4–2. On 12 November 1966, they hosted

Liberia Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean ...

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 West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

's B-team. The match in Sierra Leone was won 1–0 by the Germans. Sierra Leone's first match outside

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

was also their first against an Asian nation,

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. They lost 4–1 in China on 5 April 1974. Sierra Leone's golden period was during the 1990s, qualifying for both the

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

and 1996 Africa Cup of Nations. However, they were forced to withdraw from the next two editions due to the

Sierra Leone Civil War The Sierra Leone Civil War (1991–2002), or the Sierra Leonean Civil War, was a civil war in Sierra Leone that began on 23 March 1991 when the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), with support from the special forces of Liberia, Liberian dictato ...

. 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

n FA did the same. Sierra Leonean players playing outside Sierra Leone, such as

Michael Lahoud Michael Lahoud (french: Michel Lahoud, ar, مايكل لحود; born September 15, 1986) is a former Sierra Leonean footballer and current broadcaster for Austin FC. He also holds American citizenship. Career College Born in Freetown, Lahoud m ...

playing in

the United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, 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. The Sierra Leonean national team wasn't allowed to play home games and all players had to be foreign-based. In October 2015, Sierra Leone suffered a surprise defeat to

Chad Chad (; ar, تشاد , ; french: Tchad, ), officially the Republic of Chad, '; ) is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic ...

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 Group 1 may refer to: * Alkali metal, a chemical element classification for Alkali metal * Group 1 (racing), a historic (until 1981) classification for Touring car racing, applied to standard touring cars. Comparable to modern FIA Group N * Group On ...

winners

Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre is ...

. On 5 October 2018, the

was suspended by FIFA and the ''Leone Stars'' were excluded from the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualification.

Coaching history

* Burkhard Pape (1966–1968) * Klaus Ebbighausen (1976–1978) *

Warwick Rimmer Warwick Rimmer (born 1 March 1941) is an English former professional football player and coach. In a playing career which lasted from 1960 to 1979, Rimmer made nearly 600 professional league appearances for Bolton Wanderers and Crewe Alexandra ...

(1979) *

Christian Cole Christian Cole is a Sierra Leonean football coach who currently coaches club side Mighty Blackpool. Career Cole has had four spells in charge of the national team. In January 2011, Minister of Employment, Youth and Sports Paul Kamara removed ...

(1989) *

(1991) * Raymond Zarpanelian (1993–1994) *

Roger Palmgren Roger Lennart Palmgren is a Swedish football manager. He has that has been active as club manager in nine different countries: Italy, Sweden, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, South Africa, Namibia and China. He h ...

(1996) * John Sherington (1996–1997) * Abdulai Sesay (1997–2000) *

Dušan Drašković Dušan Drašković (born 20 June 1939) is a Montenegrin former football manager and player. He is considered one of the pioneers of modern football in Ecuador. Playing career During his playing career, Drašković played for Spartak Subotica, ...

(2000) *

(2001) * José Antonio Nogueira (2003) * John Sherington (2003–2006) * James Peters (2006–2007) * Mohamed Kanu (2007–2009) * Daniel Koroma (2009–2010) *

(2010–2011) * Lars-Olof Mattsson (2011–2013) * Johnathan McKinstry (2013–2014) *

Atto Mensah Atto Ayippey Mensah (born 1964) is a Ghanaian-born Sierra Leonean football coach and former player. He lives in the Netherlands and holds both Sierra Leonean and Dutch citizenship. He came to Sierra Leone in 1980 and played for East End Lions and ...

(2014) * John Ajina Sesay (2014–2015) * John Sherington (2015) *

Sellas Tetteh Sellas Tetteh Teivi (born 12 December 1956) is a Ghanaian professional football coach and former player. Early and personal life Sellas Tetteh Teivi was born on 12 December 1956 in Adabraka. His father was Mensah Teivi, a mechanic, and his mothe ...

(2015–2017) * John Keister (2017–2019) *

(2019–2020) * John Keister (2020–present)

Players

Current squad

The following players were called up for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualification matches against

and

Guinea-Bissau Guinea-Bissau ( ; pt, Guiné-Bissau; ff, italic=no, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫 𞤄𞤭𞤧𞤢𞥄𞤱𞤮, Gine-Bisaawo, script=Adlm; Mandinka: ''Gine-Bisawo''), officially the Republic of Guinea-Bissau ( pt, República da Guiné-Bissau, links=no ) ...

on 9 and 13 June 2022, respectively. ''Caps and goals are correct as of 13 June 2022, after the match against .''

Recent call-ups

The following players have also been called up to the Sierra Leone squad within the last twelve months. ;Notes ^INJ Player withdrew from the current squad due to injury.
^PRE Preliminary squad / standby
^RET Player had announced retirement from international football.
^SUS Player is serving a suspension.
^PRI Player absent due to private circumstances.
^WD Withdrawn.

Records

:''Players in bold are still active with Sierra Leone.''

Most capped players

Top goalscorers

Competitive record

FIFA World Cup

Africa Cup of Nations

Coaching staff

References

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
at

FIFA.com FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

Sierra Leone
at National-Football-Teams.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Sierra Leone National Football Team African national association football teams