Please click on the photo  to enlarge it   A new Reading FC team was formed in Freetown, capital of Sierra Leone when Max Edgar, from Woodside, Ascot, and three other local lads visited a children's mission there.

The mission is for former street children, most of whom are ophans, or whose families can't support them, who have been taken in by the mission and are taking part in a rehabilitation programme to equip them to look after themselves. Part of the programme is to get them to take part in organised sports and football is the most popular. SIerra Leone is one of the world's poorest countries.

The trainers at the back of the picture (above) are Max, who is manager of the Sunninghill Saints U9 Leopards, with his friends Scott Hill, Ben Jackson and Dan Hardy who made up the foursome. The young players in the picture with Max and his chums are wearing Sunninghill Saints FC football strips!


 The four heard about the work of the Salesian mission in Sierra Leone from Anne Marie Rocco who has had links with the mission starting when she worked with airline BMI which has regular flights to Sierra Leone. She met Max at a football tournament in Bracknell in the summer as she had a son playing for an Ascot United team and Max was managing the Sunninghill Saints team. She told him the mission was looking for a sports coach and Max spoke to his three friends who are all local football referees and sports coaches and they agreed they would try to go if they could raise the money needed to get there. They raised the money for their flights, acccommodation travel insurance, visas, medical vaccinations and other costs through bag packing days at supermarkets, car washing, holding sponsored afternoon teas and fund raising at local fetes.

They stayed in a Salesian Mission near the airport in Lungi for ten days and coached at schools and an after-school community club in the area, but took a trip by ferry into Freetown to coach the children in the mission.The visit by the lads was only one part of an incredible day  for the children in the mission as they also had a visit from one of Sierra Leone's leading football teams called (believe it or not) Sheffield United (as they got donated kit from that club and decided to use the name as well). Ann Marie and the boys had met one the Sheffield United managers when they arrived at the airport and invited them to meet up at the mission  Among the Sheffield United players were several who played for Sierra Leone's national team which was unlucky not to qualify for the African Cup of Nations despite having previous winners Egypt and South Africa in their qualifying section.


The manager of Sheffield United challenged the four lads to a game against four of his internationals during their visit to the mission. The 'Reading FC' lads won 3-1. According to Max this was despite the Sierra Leonians being much better players but they tended to make too many passes to show off their skill while the four lads just went for goal whenever they could. So well did they get on that the lads challenged the team to visit them at the mission they were staying at and play a team from their community club which the boys would manage. Sheffield United responded to the challenge and despite it involving a lengthy ferry journey visited the boys at the Lungi Community Centre where they had created a team from the many youngsters who visit it each day after school. This match caused great excitement in the local area and a crowd of more than 1,000 came along to watch. The Community Centre team were kitted out in donated Reading FC strips which Max and Ben found among the kit they took with them and they insisted on using as they are both great Reading fans. Scott and Dan went along with the idea despite both being Man Utd fans. Max says that the four lads played in the first half and were one up when they made a mass subsititution of themselves and the team eventually lost 3-1 to the professionals. However the best news was that three of the mission team were signed by the professional side. "It is thanks to a lot of people in the UK that we were able to raise the money to travel to Sierra Leone and help out where we could.  We took masses of kit donated by local football clubs which was really kind of them. We were also able to buy  some extra kit and equipment for the children in Sierra Leone who have so little," he added. The boys are hoping that they will be able to make return visits to Sierra Leone, and the many new friends they made there.