Sierra Leone - undiscovered diamond?

Whilst the likes of Nigeria and Cameroon initially laid the groundwork for African nations to come through, with their superb performances in the World Cup, Senegal has become the latest country to make that breakthrough.

On the back of their impressive showing in Japan/Korea, a number of Senegalese stars won transfers to The Premiership, with Birmingham taking Aliou Cisse and Liverpool swelling their ranks with the double acquisition of El Hadji Diouf and Salif Diao.

And it is with a nod of acknowledgement to their African counterparts that Sierra Leone have started up their own football academy and given land to develop other football schools.  The country itself is a hotbed of passion for the game, with Sundays set aside for games on whatever strip of land can be found.

One of the poorest nations on the planet, with an average annual salary of $100 (£65), naturally the lure of European football and its astronomical wages is very enticing for any budding player.

Currently Internazionale's Mohammed Kallon is their highest profile player, although being third choice striker at Giuseppe Meazza has seen it difficult for him to make an impact on Serie A.

In his few opportunities, Kallon has proven himself a quick, powerful striker, with an eye for goal, but the return of Christian Vieri has relegated him to a mainly bench role.

Back at home the football federation are actively seeking a foreign coach to help push on relatively new ideas like player diet and training and managers from Scandinavia and Eastern Europe have been approached.

At the moment the team have still to get past the stage of eating fish curry and rice and drinking coca-cola 90 minutes before internationals start!

With the Sierra Leone government actively looking to establish themselves on the world stage and one of the few prospectors to take an active interest in the country's football describing what he saw as 'a fantastic seam of new football', things are looking bright.