2016 Players of the Year

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Thank you viewers we have now completed voting for the Player of the Year and Young Player of the Year for 2016.

We have winners for both categories but they will be revealed on the night of the awards.

The Sierra Leone Football.com Awards Freetown 2017 will take place in December in Freetown. Please keep visiting the site for updates on location and date.

Previous awards have been held in Freetown and London. The past two awards, 2014 & 2015, were held in London due to the Ebola virus.

Previous winners include, John Kamara, Umaru Bangura and Kei Kamara.

Player of the Year nominees were:

Five players have been selected by sports journalists in Sierra Leone to compete for the Best Player of the Year award. Voting ended on 31st December 2016 for the Player of the Year and on 31st March 2017 for the Young Player of the Year. Awards will be presented in Freetown in December 2017.
The players selected for 2016 are:

Julius Gibrilla Woobay
At 32 a senior member of the Leone Stars squad. Plays as an attacking midfielder for Olimpija Ljubljana in the Slovenian Prva Liga. In a long playing career starting at East End Lions has played with distinction in Cyprus, Romania, Azerbaijan & Egypt.

Kei Ansu Kamara
At 32 a senior member of the Leone Stars squad. Plays as a striker for New England Revolution in the MLS. In a long playing career starting at FC Kallon has played for many clubs in the MLS as well as Norwich in the English Premier League and Middlesbrough in the English Football League. Kei has always finished near the top for MVP and Golden Boot awards having scored over 75 career goals in the MLS. Kei came out of retirement to score the only goal for Leone Stars in their final qualifying AFCON 17 match against Ivory Coast.

Mohamed Buyaka Turay
At 21 as yet uncapped for Leone Stars the young striker has been making waves in Sweden. Having started at Miatta FC , Waterloo he has played in Sweden for Juventus IF, Vasteras SK and currently AFC United. He has so far scored over 40 career goals in Sweden.

Sheka ‘Eto’o’ Fofanah
At 18 our youngest nominee but a sensation in 2016. A striker for Freetown City FC before his Leone Stars call up for inclusion for the AFCON 17 qualifiers. Played in 5 matches and scored 2 goals, most notably the overhead strike winner against Sudan in Freetown. He has now signed for the Danish First Division club Vejle Boldklub.

Umaru ‘Zingalay’ Bangura
At 29 the captain of Leone Stars plays as a defender for Swiss club FC Zurich. In a playing career starting off at Mighty Blackpool has gone on to play for clubs in Norway and Belarus. He captained Leone Stars with distinction through the AFCON 17 and World Cup qualifiers at the time of the Ebola crisis and afterwards.

Young Player of the Year Nominees were:

Kwame Quee

At 20 and a fully fledged Leone Star, Quee plays as an attacking midfielder for local club FC Johansen. Quee was selected by Leone Stars coach Sellas Tetteh ahead of foreign-based midfielders for the entire Leone Stars Afcon 2017 qualifying series. Quee was part of the  FC Johansen 2016 FA Cup Winning team.

Mohamed Buyaka Turay

At 21 as yet uncapped for Leone Stars the young striker has been making waves in Sweden. Having started at Mattia FC , Waterloo he has played in Sweden for Juventus IF, Vasteras SK and currently AFC United. He has so far scored over 40 career goals in Sweden. 

Mustapha Bundu

At 19 Bundu is a product of the Craig Bellamy Foundation who furthered his football career graduating from the Hartpury College in the UK in 2016. The forward spent a season at Hereford winning three trophies, scoring 17 goals in 17 appearances and played in the FA Vase Final in 2016. Bundu signed for Danish Superliga Club Aarhus GF in 2016. 

Osman Kakay

At 19 Kakay plays as a defender for Chesterfield on loan from Queens Park Rangers. Kakay is a product of the QPR academy and signed his first professional contract with the club in 2015.

Sheka ‘Eto’o’ Fofanah
At 18 our youngest nominee but a sensation in 2016. A striker for Freetown City FC before his Leone Stars call up for inclusion for the AFCON 17 qualifiers. Played in 5 matches and scored 2 goals, most notably the overhead strike winner against Sudan in Freetown. He  signed for the Danish First Division club Vejle Boldklub in 2016.

 

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