By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
Sierra Leone National team, Leone Stars have invited Captain Umaru Zaingeley Bangura, Kei Kamara and Mohamed Buya Turay. The three stars are among 15 foreign based players that have been invited by coach Sellas Tetteh to face Lesotho in Freetown and Benin in Porto Novo this month.
The Leone Stars team is expected to start its 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers on the 13th of November in Freetown. The team will then travel to Porto Novo three days later to face Benin.
Other players who made the squad are Mustapha Dumbuya from Phoenix Rising in the United States and regulars like Hassan Milla Kamara, Kwame Quee, George Davis, Solomon Zombo Morris and John Trye.
Head of Media at the Sierra Leone Football Association, Ibrahim Kamara told Politico that some of the players will be in Freetown as early as Friday, 9th November.
Coach Sellas Tetteh is still expected to name home based players that will join the national team for the two games. A team of 24 homebased players have been training with the team now for weeks.
“This time around we expect to have more home-based players in the national team for these two games,” Kamara said.
However, if all 15 foreign based players are selected, there will only be space for three more players in the squad. As per CAF regulation, teams can only select 18 players for an AFCON qualifying match.
The preparation for the AFCON qualifiers has not gone as smoothly as it was supposed to be. The FA has penalized two of its technical staff for fighting. Assistant Coach 1 - Musa Kallon sacked, while Welfare Officer - Junior Lawson was suspended for two matches.
Two of its leading strikers, Musa Kamara (Musa Tombo) and Baimba Sesay are also on the verge of being axed from the national team. The final decision has not been taken by Tetteh yet. But they are not part of the team at the moment.
Leone Stars will also play Lesotho behind closed doors following a FIFA ban that imposed sanction on Sierra Leone for disorderly conduct by fans during the Sierra Leone v Liberia game on September 8th this year.
Kamara said the technical team has extensively cancelled the players to take off the frustration of playing in an empty stadium.
“What the team has done is to engage the players and prepare them psychologically for the effect of playing in an empty stadium. From the end of this week we will start to train at the National Stadium to prepare ourselves. Because during training sessions we don’t get the too many fans anyway,” he said.
This will be the first time Zaingeley will return to play for Leone Stars, two months after his missed penalty against Liberia and the ensuing hostility he faced as a result.
Buya might be paired with Kei upfront considering his great form in Europe this season. Buya’s equalizing goal last weekend against Norkopping in Sweden won Djurgaden the league title. He finished the season with 15 goals, becoming the first Sierra Leonean to win a golden boot in the top tier of a European league.
With uncertainty over Tombo and Baimba’s inclusion in the squad for both games, all eyes will be on Suffian Kalokoh. The Bo Rangers player has been a key figure in the home-based team, since his brilliant display at the just concluded WAFU Cup of Nations.
Sierra Leone is in Group F with Lesotho, Benin and Nigeria.
© 2019 Politico Online
