Slum kids and the superstar

MD staff volunteer Alison Marsh was working on a project in Freetown, Sierra Leone when she met a group of teenagers playing football. With her help they played in front of their sporting hero, as Alison explains.

Word had reached the teenagers of Brilliant Blinds FC that someone very, very important was about to pay them a visit.

It is pretty hard to stay in Sierra Leone for long and not come across Mohamed Kallon. In a country fairly short of celebrities, he is the one-man ‘A’ list. Kallon is the key player in Leone Stars, Sierra Leone’s national football team - not the brightest stars in the African footballing firmament, but ‘much endeavour shown’ as my P.E. teachers used to say. Kallon himself though is a class apart. You can’t go far without seeing his image, often on a billboard advertising his own brand of tea.

So the kids of Brilliant Blinds were struggling to believe the rumour. They live in some of Freetown’s worst slums, where no-one pays much attention – certainly not the positive sort. But their sporting hero coming to check them out? Don’t be silly!

We first met the boys when they were hanging around the St George’s School project. We provided them with a proper kit, along with a strip for the opposing side to borrow each week. Next we gave the squad a name – my husband’s company in the UK - and found them some regular coaching. The boys lapped all this up; they clearly weren't used to being paid any attention most of the time except being told to 'get out of the way'. So how would their sense of self-worth respond to a visit from Sierra Leone's biggest sporting star. I wanted to find out and approached Mohammed Kallon via our coach. To my delight he agreed to come and watch Brilliant Blinds in action.

The big day arrived and a lot of the community came along to witness the occasion. Brilliant Blinds were playing a team called Blackpool FC (English league team names are a popular choice in Sierra Leone). Non players like myself had all been given ‘Mohamed Kallon Fan Club’ t-shirts to wear.

Good as his word, Kallon turned up. I thought I had experienced what it was liked to be mobbed by the local kids, but this was in another league. ‘Mr Football’ patiently talked to each child and signed every scrap of paper passed his way. He invited the team to a training session at his academy. For a couple of hours some of Africa’s poorest slum children felt like royalty.

As for the game itself: Brilliant Blinds went down in a blaze of glory, losing 5-0 to Blackpool. It didn’t seem to bother the kids; as my P.E. teacher would say ‘much endeavour shown.’