As a player, Conteh featured for top-flight side Ascentonians when Sierra Leone’s women’s league first began in the early 1990s, going on to also play for Prisons, Lioness and Soccer Angels, and earning six caps for her country.
Part of a footballing family living in the capital Freetown, she developed her love of the game at an early age – against the wishes of her mother.
“My father, uncle and two cousins played football,” she explains.
“I started playing football during my primary school days. I usually hid my boots from my mum.
“She was totally against it because there was the belief at the time that football was meant for the men and not the women.
“But my elder brother pleaded with my mum, to persuade her by reminding her that football was in me because I came from a football family and I was born and raised in a football community.
“So my mum gave me the green light. That is how I became a player.”
Decades later, Conteh became the only female coach in Sierra Leone to hold a top-level A Licence issued by the Confederation of African Football before East End Tigers added to the list of firsts by appointing her as their manager in the National Premier League.
Sadly for Conteh, fate intervened when her first season in charge was curtailed by the coronavirus pandemic and she was subsequently ordered by her superiors with the police to take the reins with Police FC following their promotion to the top-flight in 2021.
Source link : https://www.bbc.com/sport/africa/66257145
Author :
Publish date : 2023-08-15 07:00:00
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.