Sierra Leone’s senior national male team, Leone Stars has been ranked 27 best football playing country in Africa in the latest CAF rankings for December 2022.

Early this year, CAF released general criteria for group rankings in the Africa. After the conclusion of the group stage of the Total Energies Africa Cup of Nations, Cameroon 2021, teams were ranked in their respective groups according to the competition regulations. Initially, the African Champions 2021 Senegal sat at the first position until Morocco went to the Semi-final of the World Cup 2022 that earned them the 1st position.

Considering their brilliant performance in the TotalEnergies AFCON qualifiers, the Leone Stars recorded an unexpected success story during the group stages grabbing two points in two games before losing their final group stage match against Equatorial Guinea which led to their early exit. This success story earned them respect among countries in Africa and the World.

On the latest CAF rankings after the world cup, Sierra Leone Leone Stars now ranks as the 27th best football playing country in Africa. As at present, Sierra Leone sits 27th in CAF rankings and 116th in FIFA rankings with 1160.31 points. With the achievements these years, Sierra Leone sits ahead of Angola, Guinea Bissau, Libya, Malawi, Togo etc in both CAF and FIFA rankings.

The Confederation of African Football is the administrative and controlling body for African association football. CAF represents the national football associations of Africa, runs continental, national, and club competitions, and controls the prize money, regulations and media rights to those competitions. CAF is the biggest of six continental confederations of FIFA. CAF has been given 5 slots out of the 32 available since the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France, this increased to 6 in 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, to include the hosts. The number of places returned to 5 for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.