One Foot Football

Every once in awhile I'll come across something by chance that just blows my mind away. Despite having spent much of my youth engaged in the game, soccer just isn't one of those things. At least that's what I thought, until I was made aware of the existance of the Sierra Leone amputee football team, an african soccer team composed entirely of one-legged amputees (many having lost their limbs in landmine accidents) based, not surprisingly, out of Sierra Leone.

The Amputees in Action

The Sierra Leonean squad, called the Single Leg Amputee Sports Club (SLASC), competed in the 2003 'Play4Hope' tour in England, generating a measure of positive feedback and leading to the formation of two additional amputee teams. The teams consist of 6 one-legged players and 1 one-armed goalie. Nic Bothma of the European Pressphoto Agency has been recognized for his photography of the sport, and Bob Jones has written an article on the growth of the SLASC. Read the article here, or you can watch more of them in action.