Sport in Sierra Leone
Rev. Yatta Samura is currently Pasteur to the Sierra Leone National Soccer and Olympic teams. Yatta is an ambassador with good international links. Reverend Yatta runs a football team in Sierra Leone called St Edwards. One of his protégés is Mohamed Kallon who now plays in Europe for Monaco.
The Sierra Leone football team is currently ranked 148 out of 204 countries in the FIFA rankings. However it is a testimony to Sierra Leone’s resolve and skills that they are still above many international teams despite the obvious impact of the civil war. The FIFA web site is well worth researching under Sierra Leone, for example you will find details of how Sierra Leone's amputees now play for peace:
FIFA.COM 24/1/04 :- Just as Sierra Leone’s under-17s were stretching the planet’s best junior sides at last year’s World Championship in Finland, another group of youngsters from the war-ravaged East African country were setting out to show just what they could do. Twenty of the nation’s best single-leg amputee footballers were on their way to England to raise awareness and spirits………
Before Sierra Leone’s decade-long civil war, many of the boys dreamt of footballing glory. But after a series of horrifying events and scarring rebel incursions in which amputation was common practice, the dream was put to rest. Now though, with peace finally a reality, those most affected by the perverse violence are turning back to the game they love.
Action for Children in Conflict (AfC) devised the idea for Sierra Leone’s Single Leg Amputee Soccer Club, providing kits, training facilities and transportation. With financial assistance from FIFA and the country’s FA, a dream tour of the UK became a sudden reality.