Leslie Allen, the touchline master dribbler is dead
By Mohamed Fajah Barrie
It has been confirmed that one of the finest right wingers in the history of Sierra Leone football Leslie Allen, a man I’ve known since I was a boy as we grew up in the same community died a few hours ago at the 34 Military hospital in Freetown.
His death came three days after another prominent football personality Abdulai ‘Garrincha’ Sesay, a former Leone Stars player and coach pasaed away, and nearly ten months after the legendary Lamin ‘Junior Tumbu’ Conteh passed on.
Nicknamed ‘Silabob, Debaski and Bobor Allen’ to name a few played as both a winger and a striker. He was good at dribbling defenders on the touchline and excelled at both club and international levels.
Allen won many caps with Leone Stars spanding from the mid 80s to 1997 and scored goals. He was a member of the Leone Stars team that nearly qualified for the 1988 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) finals in Morocco after knocking out both Liberia and Ghana but lost out in the final qualifying round 3-2 on aggregate to Nigeria. He scored the winning goal against Liberia in Freetown.
He also scored the winning goal against Mali in Freetown in 1991 in a 1-0 victory in their last match of the 1992 AFCON qualifiers in Freetown.
Some of his other goals he netted were in the several West African sub regional Amilcar Cabral Zone II football tournaments he featured in including the 1993 edition in Freetown which they won, the first ever silverware for Sierra Leone.
Before making his international debut he was among players selected by the late Leone Stars coach Maneh Peters for a training camp in 1983 in the then West Germany. He also made Leone Stars’ other training camp trips to The Netherlands in 1987 a few fews to their 1988 Olympic games qualifier against Tunisia in Freetown which they won 1-0 courtesy of Lyndon Thomas’ goal,
and France in early 1994 before the AFCON finals in Tunisia.
Some of his notable teammates at
at the national team were Brima Atouga Kamara (dead), Idrissa ‘Police’ Kamara (dead), Joseph Toby, Foday Sesay, Saidu ‘Tibaty’ Kanu, Gbassay Sesay, Abdul Cole, Alusine Terry, John Dumbuya, TK Mamoud, Abu Sankoh, Abu Gnator, Mohamed Jalloh, Abdulai ‘Decox’ Sesay, Mohamed ‘Kofi Badu’ Kamara, Lamin ‘Junior Tumbu’ Conteh, Ibrahim ‘Junior Parade’ Koroma, Rashin Wurie, Daniel TOP Sesay, John Ajina Sesay, Lyndon Thomas, Brima Geroge (dead), Mohamed Mnasaray, Ibrahim Bah, Bashiru King, Lamin Bangura, Mohamed Kanu, Abu Gbanaloko Kanu, Musa ‘Jirzinho’ Kanu and many more..
His last match for Leone Stars was during 1997 Zone II tournament in The Gambia before he decided to hang his boots and moved to New York, USA to stay there.
At club level, he won the Sierra Leone top flight league with both East End Lions and Ports Authority FC.
Leslie started with Ports Authority FC in the early 80s after he was recruited from the Fourah Bay field league where he was playing for his community team Square Strikers. He then moved to East End Lions where he spent several years helping ‘The ‘Killers’ to win the league in 1985, and he also had a spell with Old Edwardians before he decided to ply his trade outside Sierra Leone.
He first featured for Ivorian side ASEC Mimosas based in Abidjan before moving to Mogas 90 of Benin and later Mbilinga of Gabon.
Leslie who also spoke French fluently returned to Sierra Leone in 1993 to rejoin Ports Authority FC and helped the team to gain a place in the 1994 West Africa Football Union (WAFU) cup and win the league in 1995 alongside notable players like Ibrahim ‘Inspector’ Bah, Kewullay Conteh, James ‘Police’ Kayimba, Brima ‘Chico Myers’ Conteh, Abdulai ‘Decox’ Sesay, Hassan ‘Milla’ Sesay, Umaru Kabia.and goalkeeper Moses Sam.
He netted a hat-trick including a flying header on a waterlogged pitch at the Siaka Stevens stadium in Freetown for Ports Authority FC in their 4-0 win over Horoya AC in the 1994 WAFU clubs cup game.
But he nearly lost his life in the return leg in Conakry where he collided in the air with the Horoya goalie Fode Laye Camara and went unconscious. He had to have surgery before he fully recovered.
He will be sadly missed! RIP Leslie!!!
Pic one: Leslie in action for Asec, pic 2: Leslie, Didi Abu and I in a wedding party in Philadelphia, USA in 2013. Pic 3: Leslie standing second from left in a Leone Stars line up pic for a Zone II match in 1993 in Freetown. Pic 4: Leslie standing second from right in a Ports Authority FC line-up pic that won the 1995 Sierra Leone league.
