Sierra Leone’s AFCON qualification: an Isha Johansen legacy

Freetown | 24th June 2021 | Vertex Media

As the waves of celebrations settle following Sierra Leone’s iconic return to the Africa Cup of Nation after 26 years, it is but fitting to pay tribute to somebody who’s hugely responsible for this victory. An persona held in high esteem in world Football. A Sierra Leonean football administrator who has developed the game in Sierra Leone. She is Isha Johansen, FIFA Council Member, CAF Executive Committee Member and the immediate past President of the Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA), who started Sierra Leone’s campaign in the just concluded Cameroon 2021 AFCON Qualifiers, on the 13th November 2019.

During the wild celebrations by Sierra Leoneans across the country, little or no credence was given to her for her enduring role in ensuring that Sierra Leone qualified after almost 3 decades. Her inspiration to the players and technical staff during her reign has earned us a place in the forthcoming AFCON finals in Cameroon.

But how much did we celebrate her for this achievement?

Leone Stars’ road to Cameroon 2021 AFCON finals is the handiwork of the erstwhile SLFA boss, who drove and inspired the team to success at about 90% before leaving office.

Let’s go back to where it all started.

The former SLFA Boss before being elected in 2014 was a Football Administrator and founder of unquestionably one of Sierra Leone’s successful football clubs, the youthful FC Johansen. She and her team travelled extensively globally using football to change the narrative of Sierra Leone from being perceived a war mongering child soldier nation, to one of a field of dreams and hope for the next generation, through football.

Isha brought John Keister to Sierra Leone to coach and manage FC Johansen with a financial package deal that till today has never been matched by any coach or manager in Sierra Leone. Keister in turn brought international and national laurels for the club and country (Sweden, and Swiss Cup Gold medalists, beating Liverpool youth side in 2011) the rest was history. FC Johansen was the youngest team in the Premier League in 2012, Keister was the new kid on the block to watch out for as far as National Team Coaches were concerned.

He later became the Head Coach of East End Lions F.C and was appointed Assistant Coach of Leone Stars.

After the resignation of the Ghanaian born Coach Sellas Tetteh, who had already played 2 games in the qualifying campaign, the then SLFA President Johansen had to entrust a Sierra Leonean trained coach – John Keister the responsibility to lead the Leone Stars team to AFCON, despite interests from foreign coaches. Keister took up the job with confidence and high optimism, despite the little hope certain quarters of the public had on him to deliver, especially at time our chances of qualifying were hanging on thin line, after securing just 1 point from 2 games, against Lesotho and Benin. Keister’s first assignment was the most difficult fixture in the Group L, a doubler against Nigeria. But the talisman was up to the task.

Leone Stars’ dramatic 4-4 comeback against the Super Eagles in Benin City was a major turnaround in the qualifying campaign. Madam Isha’s bold decision to hire a homegrown coach was paying off. And this has subsequently brought joy and happiness to millions of Sierra Leoneans. Coach Keister as well as Madam Isha deserve credit for this qualification, which was delivered in the hands of the new SLFA boss, Thomas Daddy Brima.

Isha Johansen ended her tenure as SLFA boss on the 4th June 2019, with just one game to go in the qualifying campaign, after 5 games played already. She left to perform a bigger role as a FIFA Council member and to project Sierra Leone’s image at the highest level of global football as an ambassador. In order not to the leave the SLFA in vacuum, she threw her support to the newly elected President, someone who shares her values in developing Sierra Leone football.

Now, John Keister is a national asset, a product and vision of Isha Johansen. The entire technical staff of our National Football Teams (both male and female, senior and junior teams) are 100% homegrown. All thanks to a visionary leader, Isha Johansen.

Sierra Leone’s success story in the AFCON campaign can also be attributed to a successful home league (the Sierra Leone Premier League), instituted by Isha Johansen under the stewardship of Lawyer Alieu Vandi as Premier League Board Chairman. It is safe to say that a good number of young players outsourced from the home league contributed immensely to Leone Stars’ qualification. We are proud as a country to have homebased players forming over 50% of the Leone Stars squad. This was the job of Madam Johansen, developing the game and players locally, some have already attracted clubs abroad.

Isha Johansen’s determination and dream of qualifying the nation for the Africa Cup of Nation can be traced back in the 2017 AFCON Qualifiers, where Leone Stars participated in the qualifying stage at a very difficult period in our history, a time the Ebola virus was ravaging the country. That outbreak forced us to play our home matches on foreign grounds. The campaign was fully funded by the Sierra Leone Football Association. Leone Stars nearly qualified against Ivory Coast in Abidjan, had it not been for bad officiating, Sierra Leone would have won that match, finished top and qualified. But we were robbed and we ended up in second position in Group I.

The 2021 AFCON qualification of Leone Stars is a true legacy of Madam Isha Johansen. Sierra leoneans should celebrate such a wonderful woman, a gem in football. Her indefatigable staff at the SLFA did this together. She will continue to support and inspire the squad ahead of the AFCON finals in January, just as she did when the team went to play Benin in Conakry last week.

By Ibrahim Sorious Samura