Hope in football

My partner asked me what the status of Sierra Leone's football team is--this is what I could (sadly) find...(I am headed there in September)...

hope in football

Mon Apr 10, 2:19 AM ET

FREETOWN (AFP) - There are no kit bags or towels at the edges of a
makeshift beachside pitch, just a couple of prostheses and a large
plastic bottle of drinking water, but Sierra Leone’s national
amputees football team is in play.

A group of single-legged young men, all victims of the west African
nation’s brutal civil war in which thousands lost limbs and other
body parts not only to landmines or bullets, but also to hacking by
rebel groups, has come together to seek encouragement and hope.

As with any other sportsmen, they first of all warm up, laying their
crutches on the sand of Freetown’s popular Lumley beach so they
can stretch and jump around before taking to the pitch.

When ready they pick up their crutches, the whistle is blown and the game begins.

Maxwell Fornah (C), captain of the Sierra Leone civil war amputees
football team, tries to slip past a tackle at a beach in Freetown.
There are no kit bags or towels at the edges of a makeshift beachside
pitch, just a couple of prostheses and a large plastic bottle of
drinking water, but Sierra Leone’s national amputees football
team, all victims of the west African nation’s brutal civil war,
have already come third in last year’s World Cup single-leg
soccer tournament in Brazil and dream of one day playing at the
Paralympics(AFP/Issouf Sanogo)

Prosthesis are not allowed on the pitch so they play with just one
foot each while balancing only on the crutches. But their skills at
dribbling, passing and scoring are breathtaking all the same.

“We started playing football as a social game after we became
envious of other boys with two legs. It was painful to just watch them
and not play. It was just after the war in 2001 and we were all at the
camp (for amputees and war victims),” said Victor Musa, striker
for the Sierra Leone Single Leg Amputees Sports Club.

“Now we don’t feel that much disabled anymore, we can play football too,” said Musa.

Now they have turned professional and last year came third, after
England and Brazil, at the World Cup single-leg soccer tournament in
Brazil.

“I plan to continue playing and pray that one day I will play
in the Paralympic Games,” said team captain Maxwell Fornah, who
was shot in the leg in 1998 as he fled home from school after his
village in Kambia, northeast of the capital, came under attack during
Sierra Leone’s decade-long civil war.

“I don’t even know if it was a soldier or a rebel who
shot me, the only thing I remember was waking up hours later in a Red
Cross hospital,” he said.

Mmidfielder Mohamed Jalloh, 20, said: “I want to become an
international star like Thierry Henry, or Samuel Eto’o.”

Mohamed Fofana (R) of the Sierra Leone civil war amputees football
team eyes the ball at a beach in Freetown. (AFP/Issouf Sanogo)

The sport has not only provided entertainment, but helped to spread a poignant message of hope.

“We are happy that we can get together and encourage each
other,” said Mohamed Lappia, who stepped on a mine that shattered
his leg.

Saidu Mansaray, 22, is the team’s goalkeeper. He has both his
legs but only one active hand. He catches the ball with one hand as the
four fingers, save the thumb, of the other hand were chopped off with
an axe.

“We were at home in Kissy one day when three rebels came and
pulled me out, one put my hand against a mango tree and cut me up.
Another tried to cut on the wrist, but he did not succeed and gave up,
that is why you see this mark here,” Mansaray said, showing a
scar on his right hand.

“Normally I use one hand to catch the ball and this other helps sometimes to deflect the ball.”

Without sponsorship, the team struggles to find transport fares to
attend practice sessions, let alone pay for soccer boots. Most play
with threadbare sneakers, but that does not dampen their spirits.

They have neither a marked pitch nor permanent nets, but they have a team medic.

Oseh Kabiru used to be a nursing aide for a privately-run clinic in
Lunsar, about 120 kilometres (73 miles) northeast of Freetown before he
was attacked during the war and lost half of his hand.

“I massage them and offer first aid treatment. They need help
but people neglect them, so I help them voluntarily,” said
Kabiru, rolling a strip of white fabric cut into strips the size of
bandages.

Players of the Sierra Leone civil war amputees football team pose at a beach in Freetown. (AFP/Issouf Sanogo)

The team was put together in 2001 with the help of the non-governmental organisation Action for Children in Conflict.

While it may struggle for resources and many of the young men yearn
for an opportunity to go back to school as their education was
disrupted first by the war and now by high fees, they never run short
of supporters.

One ardent fan is Memunatu Kamara. She is also a victim of the war.
She was shot on her left arm, but she handles the drinking water for
the players.

“I am always with the team, wherever they go,” said Kamara who was shot when she was 15 years old in 1999.

As for Liberia’s ex-president Charles Taylor, accused of
sponsoring the conflict and facing a war crimes trial at a UN-backed
court here, team captain Fornah says: “If he is found guilty, he
should spend the rest of his life in jail.”