By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
The Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) has appointed 48 people in different technical positions for all levels of the country's national teams. Coaches and other staff were appointed for different categories of the male and female national sides.
Secretary General of the FA, Christopher Kamara said these appointments were in line with an agreed structure designed to set up the national teams for success in the future.
He said all the coaches and members of the technical sides have terms of reference for three years, and that they will work to improve on these teams whether there is a competition or not.
Appointments were made for the Senior Men’s Team, Senior Women’s Team, U-23 male, U-20 men and women, U-17 boys and girls and U-15 boys.
East End Lions Head Coach and former Sierra Leone international, John Keister was announced as the Senior Men’s coach, taking charge of Leone Stars for the second time.
Keister's first stint in charge of the senior team was in 2017. He was replaced by Ghanaian coach, Sellas Tetteh. Keister who was unveiled for his latest assignment on Monday replaces the who succeeded him back then.
When Tetteh himself was appointed in 2019 it was his second stint with the Leone Stars.
Forty-nine year old Keister has served as Assistant Coach with three different foreign coaches with the Leone Stars: Lars Mattson, Johnny Mckinstry and Sellas Tetteh. Keister was snubbed in 2019 for the Leones Stars top job ahead of the 2022 World Cup preliminary qualifiers.
Kesiter who led East End Lions to the 2019 Sierra Leone Premier League is expected to resign his post in the coming days with Lions. During his unveiling, he called for support from everyone.
“I just want to express my gratitude to you all for coming here today in support of what we’re trying to do. It is about Sierra Leone’s development in football. I am asking everyone, especially the media, that this is very important to us as coaches,” he said.
“We are going to do our job to the best of our ability,” Kesiter added.
FC Kallon Head Coach, Amidu Karim, kept his place as the Assistant Coach 1 and Bo Rangers Head Coach, Dominic Junior Konneh was appointed as the Assistant Coach 2.
Sam Obi Metzeger comes in as the Technical Coordinator and Christian Dauda Thompson keeps his place as the Team Manager.
The Leone Stars coaching team’s immediate task will be to qualify the country for the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations after a poor start in the qualifying campaign which has left the country with just one point from two games, in a group with Benin, Lesotho and Nigeria.
One of the most notable other appointments was Victoria Conteh as Coach of the U-20 Women’s National side. Conteh is the only female coach in the Sierra Leone Premier League with Eastern Tigers.
Lamin Bangura, former coach of Guinean side, AS Kaloum, has also been appointed as the Head Coach of the Home Based and U-23 men’s side.
Abu Bakar Tostao Kamara is in charge of the men’s U-20 team, whiles Raymond Lewis takes charge of the U-17 boy’s side. Fatmata Bangura will take charge of the girls U-17 side and former Mighty Blackpool coach, Abu Sankoh, is now in charge of the U-15 boys.
This is the first time the FA has made such a mass recruitment across all cadres of football. It comes as part of what the General Secretary of the FA describes as a “Strategic Development Plan”.
An experienced Sports Journalist with Radio Mercury, Muctar Koroma, said the move will help give coaches ample time to prepare their teams better.
“(This will make) a huge difference considering what had happened in the past with poor planning. With this early appointment of coaches by the football association, it will give the coaches more time to prepare their squads for national assignments,” he said.
The concern now is about how much time these coaches will have to build a system of play for the different national sides. Koroma said it is important the coaches be given ample time to perform.
“I am sure the football association considers that football is a gradual process and success doesn’t come without friendly matches and the full backing of the FA executive. If the coaches receive the necessary support, trust me they will bring the result we are all anticipating,” Koroma said.
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