Former Sierra Leone boss urges Drogba and Essien to save Africa's football future

[Steve 10,227]

Didier Drogba and Michael Essien must stand up and save African football - and this summer's World Cup finals.

Chelsea's two superstars will be the figures around which a whole continent will have to rally after the horror of Friday's machine gun attack on the Togo team.

Former Sierra Leone manager Leroy Rosenior believes their bravery to stay in Angola and play in the African Nations Cup can lead the way in recovering the way the world views Africa's football future.

Rosenior said: "I would never say they would be running away if they came home. We heard Emmanuel Adebayor on the radio describe the horror of what happened so you can understand the fears.

"But the tournament must go ahead, because otherwise terrorists will feel that they can disrupt not only this but the World Cup as well."People will look to the big players, the likes of Drogba and Essien, and it's good that they take their responsibilities so well and understand what this means to Africa as a whole.

"It would be easy for them to stay in the Premier League and play in lovely grounds and lead their wealthy lives, but they are not doing that and it's important now for them to lead by example and to do the right thing for themselves and the players.

"It's not my place to say what that is, but they do need to take the lead and not just deal with things on the pitch but also impress the politicians in their countries to start focusing on what needs to be done.

"Pressure from them will make an impact because they are like gods and I am sure if they say things need to be done quicker then it will happen."

Manchester City's Emmanuel Adebayor and his team-mates are contemplating coming home after their bus driver was killed and two players seriously injured in the attack by Angolan rebels.

Rosenior said: "When I was manager of Sierra Leone one of the games was against Togo, and on their way home one of the helicopters which was taking all the dignitaries crashed.

"People lost their lives on that, so there's a history related to this tournament with Togo where people have died and you can understand them wanting to pull out of the tournament.

"I heard people asking, 'Why did they go by coach?' but I think that helicopter accident might have had something to do with it.

"But now it's a time to bounce back, to go and play the game in the right spirit and make it an even better tournament than we thought it might be."

Mirror

Yes, they should lead my example but at the end of the day, there safety comes first.

[bombayblue™ 55]

As long their security is beefed up to ensure further such instances aren't repeated and they willingly want to stay back, I'd support them..

But I don't want any martyrs of football..

[gary gordon 1,777]

Its a very sticky situation.. I am sure deep down all the players involved want to stay but the risk of getting hurt or killed would be weighing on there mind quite a bit..

[EskWeston 696]

Leading by example doesn't come into it in these circumstances im afraid. These are only footballers, if their is any real threat to their safety then they should come back. Should it really take a player to be killed to do something? These are not soliders, the terrorists winning or not shouldn't come into it, the players saftey should be the only concern.