{"id":55981,"date":"2026-03-24T11:22:53","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T11:22:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/leone-stars-land-in-baku-ahead-of-fifa-2026-series-clash"},"modified":"2026-03-24T12:09:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T12:09:14","slug":"leone-stars-land-in-baku-ahead-of-fifa-2026-series-clash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/leone-stars-land-in-baku-ahead-of-fifa-2026-series-clash","title":{"rendered":"Leone Stars Land in Baku Ahead of FIFA 2026 Series Clash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Sierra-Leone. <\/strong><\/span><b>The Sierra Leone National Team, Leone Stars, has arrived in Baku ahead of their participation in the FIFA 2026 Series international friendlies.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The delegation, led by SLFA First Vice President Alie Badara Tarawallie, travelled from Sierra Leone with seven players and technical staff. They were joined in Istanbul by seven foreign-based players, including Juma Bah, Sulaiman Kaikai, Daniel Kanu, Idris Kanu, Kamil Conteh, Yayah Kallon, and John T. Kamara, before arriving together at Heydar Aliyev International Airport on Monday night.<\/p>\n<p>Players already in camp include Alhassan Koroma, Abdul Jarju Kabia, Alpha Turay, Samuel Ghandi, and Mamadou Jalloh.<\/p>\n<p>Leone Stars will now face Azerbaijan in a single international friendly on Monday, 30th March 2026, at 3:00 PM at the Mehdi Huseynzade Stadium, following the withdrawal of Oman and scheduling constraints involving Saint Lucia.<\/p>\n<p>Preparations begin on 24th March 2026, with Head Coach Mohamed Kallon leading the team.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Sierra-Leone<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Sierra-Leone. The Sierra Leone National Team, Leone Stars, has arrived in Baku ahead of their participation in the FIFA 2026 Series international friendlies. The delegation, led by SLFA First Vice President Alie Badara Tarawallie, travelled from Sierra Leone with seven players and technical staff. They were joined in Istanbul by seven foreign-based players, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":55980,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[292],"class_list":["post-55981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-sierra-leone"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Leone Stars Land in Baku Ahead of FIFA 2026 Series Clash - Sierra Leone<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Sierra Leone National Team, Leone Stars, has arrived in Baku ahead of their participation in the FIFA 2026 Series ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/leone-stars-land-in-baku-ahead-of-fifa-2026-series-clash\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Leone Stars Land in Baku Ahead of FIFA 2026 Series Clash\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Sierra Leone National Team, Leone Stars, has arrived in Baku ahead of their participation in the FIFA 2026 Series ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/leone-stars-land-in-baku-ahead-of-fifa-2026-series-clash\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sierra Leone\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-24T11:22:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-24T12:09:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/sites\/16\/2026\/03\/sm_1774341495.570879.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/leone-stars-land-in-baku-ahead-of-fifa-2026-series-clash#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/leone-stars-land-in-baku-ahead-of-fifa-2026-series-clash\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Leone Stars Land in Baku Ahead of FIFA 2026 Series Clash\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-03-24T11:22:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-24T12:09:14+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/leone-stars-land-in-baku-ahead-of-fifa-2026-series-clash\"},\"wordCount\":164,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/leone-stars-land-in-baku-ahead-of-fifa-2026-series-clash#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/sites\/16\/2026\/03\/sm_1774341495.570879.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Sierra-Leone\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/leone-stars-land-in-baku-ahead-of-fifa-2026-series-clash#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/leone-stars-land-in-baku-ahead-of-fifa-2026-series-clash\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/leone-stars-land-in-baku-ahead-of-fifa-2026-series-clash\",\"name\":\"Leone Stars Land in Baku Ahead of FIFA 2026 Series Clash - Sierra Leone\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/leone-stars-land-in-baku-ahead-of-fifa-2026-series-clash#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/leone-stars-land-in-baku-ahead-of-fifa-2026-series-clash#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/sites\/16\/2026\/03\/sm_1774341495.570879.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-03-24T11:22:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-24T12:09:14+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"The Sierra Leone National Team, Leone Stars, has arrived in Baku ahead of their participation in the FIFA 2026 Series ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/leone-stars-land-in-baku-ahead-of-fifa-2026-series-clash#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/leone-stars-land-in-baku-ahead-of-fifa-2026-series-clash\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/leone-stars-land-in-baku-ahead-of-fifa-2026-series-clash#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/sites\/16\/2026\/03\/sm_1774341495.570879.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/sites\/16\/2026\/03\/sm_1774341495.570879.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":630,\"caption\":\"Leone Stars Land in Baku Ahead of FIFA 2026 Series Clash\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/leone-stars-land-in-baku-ahead-of-fifa-2026-series-clash#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Leone Stars Land in Baku Ahead of FIFA 2026 Series Clash\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/\",\"name\":\"Sierra Leone\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Leone Stars Land in Baku Ahead of FIFA 2026 Series Clash - Sierra Leone","description":"The Sierra Leone National Team, Leone Stars, has arrived in Baku ahead of their participation in the FIFA 2026 Series ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/leone-stars-land-in-baku-ahead-of-fifa-2026-series-clash","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Leone Stars Land in Baku Ahead of FIFA 2026 Series Clash","og_description":"The Sierra Leone National Team, Leone Stars, has arrived in Baku ahead of their participation in the FIFA 2026 Series ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/leone-stars-land-in-baku-ahead-of-fifa-2026-series-clash","og_site_name":"Sierra Leone","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2026-03-24T11:22:53+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-03-24T12:09:14+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":630,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/sites\/16\/2026\/03\/sm_1774341495.570879.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/leone-stars-land-in-baku-ahead-of-fifa-2026-series-clash#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/leone-stars-land-in-baku-ahead-of-fifa-2026-series-clash"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Leone Stars Land in Baku Ahead of FIFA 2026 Series Clash","datePublished":"2026-03-24T11:22:53+00:00","dateModified":"2026-03-24T12:09:14+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/leone-stars-land-in-baku-ahead-of-fifa-2026-series-clash"},"wordCount":164,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/leone-stars-land-in-baku-ahead-of-fifa-2026-series-clash#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/sites\/16\/2026\/03\/sm_1774341495.570879.jpg","keywords":["Sierra-Leone"],"articleSection":["all news","sport"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/leone-stars-land-in-baku-ahead-of-fifa-2026-series-clash#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/leone-stars-land-in-baku-ahead-of-fifa-2026-series-clash","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/leone-stars-land-in-baku-ahead-of-fifa-2026-series-clash","name":"Leone Stars Land in Baku Ahead of FIFA 2026 Series Clash - Sierra Leone","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/leone-stars-land-in-baku-ahead-of-fifa-2026-series-clash#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/leone-stars-land-in-baku-ahead-of-fifa-2026-series-clash#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/sites\/16\/2026\/03\/sm_1774341495.570879.jpg","datePublished":"2026-03-24T11:22:53+00:00","dateModified":"2026-03-24T12:09:14+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"The Sierra Leone National Team, Leone Stars, has arrived in Baku ahead of their participation in the FIFA 2026 Series ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/leone-stars-land-in-baku-ahead-of-fifa-2026-series-clash#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/leone-stars-land-in-baku-ahead-of-fifa-2026-series-clash"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/leone-stars-land-in-baku-ahead-of-fifa-2026-series-clash#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/sites\/16\/2026\/03\/sm_1774341495.570879.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/sites\/16\/2026\/03\/sm_1774341495.570879.jpg","width":1200,"height":630,"caption":"Leone Stars Land in Baku Ahead of FIFA 2026 Series Clash"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/leone-stars-land-in-baku-ahead-of-fifa-2026-series-clash#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Leone Stars Land in Baku Ahead of FIFA 2026 Series Clash"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/","name":"Sierra Leone","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}