Kei Kamara says his decision to return to international football at the age of 40 was inspired by Cameroon legend Roger Milla.
Kamara was aiming to help Sierra Leone qualify for next year’s Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon), and he played the full 90 minutes in Wednesday’s 1-1 draw with Chad.
However, the Leone Stars’ hopes of reaching next year’s finals in Morocco were ended after Zambia subsequently secured the remaining qualification spot in Group G.
The forward, who made his debut in 2008, has now played 40 matches for his country, scoring seven goals – but has only ever played at one major international tournament, the 2021 Nations Cup.
In comparison, Milla played at four editions of Afcon, winning two, and three Fifa World Cups.
He still holds the record as the oldest outfield player and goalscorer at a World Cup, netting against Russia at the 1994 finals at the age of 42 years and 39 days, having previously come out of retirement aged 38 to play at the tournament in 1990.
“There’s only one person I think about when I decided to come do this thing all over again, being part of the national team at this age, and that’s Roger Milla,” Kamara told the BBC World Service.
“Roger Milla was doing it, came back out, played at the World Cup at 42.
“The World Cup is only two years ago away, so why not?”
No stranger to retirement
This is not the first time Kamara has done a u-turn on international retirement.
He first hung up his boots in November 2019 before returning a year later to help his nation qualify for the delayed 2021 Nations Cup, which was played in Cameroon in early 2022.
He retired for a second time after the tournament, having missed a penalty in their final group game which could have put the West Africans through to the last 16.
“I thought when I walked away, that was it for me,” he said.
“After playing for 15 years, representing the country, and felt like I was going out with the cherry on top.”
But Kamara’s ongoing career in US Major League Soccer (MLS), where he is now second on the all-time goalscorers list, has led to a change of heart.
“Joining a team like Los Angeles FC this season, and having so much success, and making a couple more histories in America, and everybody just keeps asking, ‘Why are you retiring? Why can’t you be here when you’re doing this much in MLS?’.
“I kind of heard the cry and some of my team-mates that I’ve been with for many years also called and I had to do it.”
Fleeing civil war
Kamara was born on 1 September 1984 in Kenema, Sierra Leone’s third-largest city.
He lived there until he was 16, experiencing first-hand the horrors of the country’s civil war in the 1990s before his family emigrated to the United States.
Having turned professional with MLS team Columbus Crew, he returned to the country of his birth in 2006.
“After I made that trip, that’s when I started falling back in love with football in Sierra Leone,” he recalled.
“Just to see how little we had. But people were still just out in the fields early in the morning, on the dusty, red dirt fields, playing, going for long runs.”
Despite having the option of playing for the USA, Kamara made the decision to accept an international call-up for Leone Stars debut in a World Cup qualifier against Equatorial Guinea in June 2008.
“I felt like I wanted to do this because I want to be able to inspire many other people that have love for Sierra Leone, that’s living overseas in the diaspora,” he said.
“It’s the best thing I did in my career, to pick up that call and represent Sierra Leone. It got me so close to the country, so close to the people.”
‘I need to sit down with Cristiano Ronaldo’
Now starring for his 11th different MLS team, Kamara has played 29 times for LA FC this season, largely as a substitute, scoring three goals to help the Californians top the Western Conference and reach the play-off semi-finals.
They will host the Seattle Sounders after the international break.
Former Norwich and Middlesbrough man Kamara puts his longevity down to healthy living, joking that he needs to “sit down with Cristiano Ronaldo”, who will be 40 in February, “to see how we’re doing this”.
“It’s a reward for what you’ve done in many years,” he went on to explain.
“It’s not cliché – I don’t drink alcohol, I didn’t smoke, I didn’t put anything illegal in my body.
“When I spend time in Sierra Leone, I’m always doing a lot of distance running, keeping myself fit.
“But also there’s a little bit of luck that you need, which is the blessings of not being injured.”
Emulating Milla in the USA?
For Kamara, there could still be a chance to mimic his hero Milla – by playing at a World Cup on US soil.
The Leone Stars still have hope of featuring at the 2026 edition – to be co-hosted by the USA, Canada and Mexico – but have little margin for error in qualifying.
They are fourth after four games in their six-team group, trailing leaders Egypt by five points.
Only the group winners are guaranteed a place at the finals, but the side finishing second could go on to compete in an intercontinental play-off.
Sierra Leone have never qualified for the World Cup and Kamara will be 41 by the time the tournament kicks off.
Reaching the finals could yet offer up one final international swansong.