By: Mohamed Abu Conteh
Sierra Leone National Team (Leone Stars) will today face Algeria Home Base sides in an international warm-up Friendly match with Fujairah United Arab Emirates.
The Team departs with a (40) man delegation, which includes 24 players, (13) Technical staff (6) Government officials and the President of the Sierra Leone Football Association made the trip to United Arab Emirates Kingdom. The Friendly is in preparation for the senior national men’s A team ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers double header against Sao Tome Principle in March 2023.
Leone Stars team arrived on Tuesday 15th November 2022 and held three days of training sessions to face the Algeria Home base sides as both prepared ahead of crucial matches, Algeria Home base sides are preparing for the CHAN tournament in January 2023.
John Keister the head coach of the Senior National team and backroom staff has invited (19) foreign base players and five Home base players for the encounter. According to him these friendly matches will give them the chance to look at the players both Home base and foreign base players the area they will fit in the different departments in the pitch of play and that is only possible throughout friendlies matches as the team brace up to face their counterpart in the Africa Cup of Nations Qualifiers.
During their training session in the United Arab Emirates, the Ambassador to Rashid Sesay paid a visit to the team in Fujairah and inspire the boys ahead of their task at hand, addressing the team Ambassador Sesay said he feel delighted to meet with the National team and added that essence of his visit was to recognize their efforts raising the Country Footballing to profile and also inspire them to continue doing more.
“We are proud that you have done extremely well by taking the country to the continental top-tier competition earlier this year. It is always a national duty to play for this team and I will urge you to continue giving your best. I will also like to encourage you all to serve as good representatives of Sierra Leone because every individual conduct matters a lot on the outlook of our country,” he said.
He commended President Julius Maada Bio and the Government for their strong commitment towards sports development in Sierra Leone and also thanked the Minister and the entire technical staff for their effort.
Leone Star’s Captain, Steven Caulker said: “We want to continue making Sierra Leone proud. Thank you for taking time off to come and visit us.”
Also present was the Minister of Sports, Ibrahim Nyelenkeh, who is leading the delegation.