Steven Caulker: Former Spurs defender set for Sierra Leone debut
- Published
Caulker currently plays for Turkish club Gaziantep on loan from Fenerbahce
Former Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool defender Steven Caulker has been called up to the Sierra Leone squad for the first time.
The 29-year-old is one of 19 overseas-based players invited for friendly games against South Sudan, The Gambia and a Morocco team of locally-based players in Casablanca on 6, 9 and 12 October respectively.
Caulker, who is currently playing for Gaziantep on loan from their Turkish rivals Fenerbahce, won a single cap for England in a 4-2 loss to Sweden in 2012 in a friendly match and also managed to get on the scoresheet.
That solitary cap came after he had played every single minute of Great Britain's campaign at the 2012 London Olympics.
He is allowed to swap countries under Fifa regulations as the cap came in a friendly and he qualifies to play for the Leone Stars through his paternal grandfather, external, who is from Sierra Leone.
Caulker's one England cap came in a friendly against Sweden, in which he scored
The Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) has confirmed that all the necessary paperwork has been lodged with Fifa and it is hopeful it will be cleared in time for the upcoming matches.
Once he has Fifa clearance Caulker, who also won 10 caps for England's U21 side, will be eligible to play for Sierra Leone at January's Africa Cup of Nations finals in Cameroon.
It would be the latest chapter in a rollercoaster career for Caulker, who also played for Queens Park Rangers, Swansea and Cardiff but suffered with an addiction to gambling as well.
There are four other new faces in the Leone Stars squad including defender David Sesay, who plays for English fifth-tier side Barnet.
The others are Issa Kallon, who plays for Dutch top-tier side SC Cambuur, Genoa forward Yayah Kallon and Greece-based Jonathan Morsay.
The SLFA is also waiting for the completed paperwork for Kallon and Morsay, who have played youth-level football for the Netherlands and Sweden respectively.
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