The West African country returns expecting to become a more regular participant after qualifying for the 1996 edition in South Africa in only their second participation at the finals.
“What we're looking forward to is going into the Cup of Nations to compete,” said coach John Keister.
“When I came into the job, it was about transitioning the national team. We’ve had a national team that has been there for over 10 years with the ageing players and we needed to do something to try and bring back success,” he told Reuters
“Going to Cup of Nations now is about trying to build so that we keep qualifying. We're going to be competitive, that's for sure.” he added.
Coach John Keister played for Walsall, Shrewsbury Town, and made some appearances for the Sierra Leone national team.
“It will give us an idea of what it is like competing with the best in Africa, and obviously helps our players as well in terms of going forward in their careers,”
“We don't want to go there just for the sake of participating, but go there and be very positive. And we want to go there and win games. I don't want to sound arrogant, but being competitive is about winning games as well,”
Sierra Leone is in the same group as Algeria, Ivory Coast, and Equatorial Guinea.
Ranked 108th in the world they will play their first game against the Algerians on January 11 at Douala.