The Sierra Leone national football team represents Sierra Leone in association football and is governed by the Sierra Leone Football Association. It has qualified for Africa Cup of Nations three times.

History
Sierra Leone's first match was at home on 10 August 1949 against another British colony, Nigeria, and was lost 2–0. In 1954 it played another British colony and British administered U.N trust territory, Gold Coast and Trans-Volta Togoland, and lost 2–0 away. On 22 April 1961, it hosted Nigeria and lost 4–2. On 12 November 1966, it hosted Liberia in its first match against a non-British colony and earned its first draw, 1–1. A week later, it lost 2–0 in Liberia. On 13 January 1971, it played its first match against a non-African team, West Germany's B-team. The match in Sierra Leone was won 1–0 by the Germans. Sierra Leone's first match outside Africa was its first against an Asian nation, China. It lost 4–1 in China on 5 April 1974.

In August 2014, Sierra Leone FA cancelled all association football matches in an effort to stop the spread of the 2014 Ebola virus epidemic in Sierra Leone, a week after Liberian FA did the same. Sierra Leonean players playing outside Sierra Leone, such as Michael Lahoud playing in the United States, were discriminated against, with opposition players refusing to swap shirts, shake hands and allow them to certain places of the stadium because they fear that they could be carrying the disease. The Sierra Leonean national team wasn't allowed to play home games and all players had to be foreign-based.

Results and fixtures

The following is a list of match results in the last 12 months, as well as any future matches that have been scheduled.

2022

2023

Coaching history

 Burkhard Pape (1966–1968)
 Klaus Ebbighausen (1976–1978)
 Warwick Rimmer (1979)
 Christian Cole (1989)
 Christian Cole (1991)
 Raymond Zarpanelian (1993–1994)
 Roger Palmgren (1996)
 John Sherington (1996–1997)
 Abdulai Sesay (1997–2000)
 Dušan Drašković (2000)
 Christian Cole (2001)
 José Antonio Nogueira (2003)
 John Sherington (2003–2006)
 James Peters (2006–2007)
 Mohamed Kanu (2007–2009)
 Daniel Koroma (2009–2010)
 Christian Cole (2010–2011)
 Lars-Olof Mattsson (2011–2013)
 Johnathan McKinstry (2013–2014)
 Atto Mensah (2014)
 John Ajina Sesay (2014–2015)
 John Sherington (2015)
 Sellas Tetteh (2015–2017)
 John Keister (2017–2019)
 Sellas Tetteh (2019–2020)
 John Keister (2020–)

Players

Current squad
The following players were called up for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualification match against  on 18 June 2023.

Caps and goals are correct as of 26 March 2023, after the match against .

Recent call-ups
The following players had been called up in 12 months preceding the above draft.

Notes
INJ Withdrew due to injury.
PRE Preliminary squad / standby
RET Had announced retirement from international association football.
SUS Is serving a suspension.
PRI Absent due to private circumstances.
WD Withdrawn.

Records

Players in bold are still active with Sierra Leone.

Most appearances

Top goalscorers

Competitive record

FIFA World Cup

Africa Cup of Nations

Coaching staff

References

Sources
Sierra Leone to 'host' the Elephants of Ivory Coast in Abidjan – footballsierraleone.net (archived 5 March 2016)
Sierra Leone 1–1 Malawi: International Friendly – footballsierraleone.net (archived 5 April 2016)

External links

 Football Sierra Leone
 Sierra Leone Football Association
 Sierra Leone at CAF
 Sierra Leone at FIFA
 Sierra Leone at National-Football-Teams.com

African national association football teams