EL JADIDA, MOROCCO – Sierra Leone’s senior national team, Leone Stars, have held their first official training session in Morocco ahead of their opening match of the TotalEnergies AFCON 2027 Qualifiers against Zimbabwe.
The team arrived in Casablanca on Sunday, 20th September and proceeded to El Jadida for their training camp. The focused session on Monday is part of fine-tuning preparations for Thursday’s crucial Group E encounter.
The Leone Stars will host Zimbabwe on Thursday, 24th September 2026 at 19:00 GMT at the Ben M’Hamed El Abdi Stadium in El Jadida, Morocco.
Although Sierra Leone are listed as the home side, the match is being played in Morocco due to the continued unavailability of an approved stadium in Freetown. The Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) says it costs the government up to $500,000 per match to host games abroad, with nearly $2 million budgeted for the first four qualifiers.
The match marks the start of the road to the AFCON PAMOJA 2027 – which will be co-hosted by Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda from 19th June to 17th July 2027 – and will be the first competitive game for new Leone Stars head coach, Didier Gomes Da Rosa. The French tactician, a UEFA Pro Licence holder with extensive African experience, was appointed in June to lead Sierra Leone back to the finals after missing the last two editions since Cameroon 2021.
Sierra Leone are in Group E alongside DR Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Zimbabwe. DR Congo will also play Equatorial Guinea on Thursday in Kinshasa.
According to CAF, the first two teams in each group will qualify for AFCON 2027, except in groups containing the co-hosts.
