The Head Coach of the senior national team Leone Stars John Edward Keister has stated that the essence of the friendly matches is to help the nation build a team for the upcoming qualifiers and other competitions.

He remarked on the relevance of the friendly outings in a Press Conference organized by the Sierra Leone Football Association on Tuesday, 20th September 2022 at its Secretariat in Kingtom for the matches against South Africa and DR Congo on the 24th and 27th of September 2022 respectively.

Coach Keister furthered that the average age of the players invited is around 23 years noting the team will not focus on winning results, “We will be looking at the positive impacts around the team and not all the time about winning, we are building a group of players that will help us achieve positive results in the important matches” he noted.

He commented that the national team is open to every player including the former skipper Umaru Zengalay Bangura if he is playing active football and added that major absentees like Mustapha Bundu, Issa Kallon, Kevin Wright, and others are out of the squad