Sierra Leone senior football national team Leone stars have on 22nd March 2022 touched down in Antalya Turkey as they prepare for a busy week taking on Togo’s Les Éperviers, the Lone Star of Liberia, and the Diables Rouges of Congo Brazzaville.
The Leone Stars will be hoping to bounce back from their 1-0 defeat to Equatorial Guinea in their final African Cup of Nations match played in January.
Gaziantep defender Steven Caulker, Bolton Wanderers striker Amadou Bakayoko, Cambuur duo Alex Bangura & Issa Kallon safely arrived in the Sierra Leone camp in Turkey as the rest of foreign-based expected on 22nd March 2022.
A total of 23 players were held invited for Sierra Leone International friendlies in Turkey. The team, led by Coach John Keister and his backroom staff, set for their first training session on Tuesday and continue on Wednesday 23rd March 2022.
The contingent, led by Sierra Leone Football Association President Thomas Daddy Brima, resides at TUI Magic Life Masmavi, Antalya.
The Leone Stars will face their Togolese counterpart on the 24th at the Mardan Sports Complex in Aksu, Antalya, Turkey.
Head coach John Keister will evaluate his side as the matches will be part of his groundwork for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.
He affirmed that the national team is currently going through a transition period as he expected to introduce new faces as he prepared to test his squad and that the technical team wants to test the strength of the players going to the group stages of the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers that are set to start in June 2022.
“While talking to the Press he said, “Sometimes it just about results but what they are trying to do in the Area development and what they want from the players”.
We are going to focus on winning our matches in friendly encounters, but it should not be a must that is why we have decided to bring in more young new faces and leave out old players to give us strength going forward.
According to Ibrahim Kamara, the Media Officer of the Sierra Leone Football Association the head John Keister has been boosted with the arrival of eight foreign-based players that have joined the team ahead of match day against Togo.
The eight players are Queens Park Rangers defender Osman Kakay, IK Sirius new acquisition Kevin Wright, Wealdstone’s Central-back David Sesay, Watford’s youngster Kamil Conteh, Rimini Calcio’s midfielder Demba Kamara have all arrived in the Leone Stars training camp in Turkey.
The others are, debutant Ibrahim Sillah kickers Emden, Greek top-tier side Panetolikos Jonathan Morsay, defensive right-back Kallum Cesay, 19 years of age, and playing his professional football for Tottenham Hotspurs in the English Premier League.
