By Fajah Barrie BBC Sport Online in Freetown

The Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) will recruit a foreign coach for Leone Stars, just a week after they asked local coach Sam Obi Metzger to prepare the team for their Nations Cup match with Equatorial Guinea.

Four foreign coaches have expressed their interest in the job.

They include the Leone Stars' former Swedish coach, Roger Palmgren.

The others are two Dutch coaches, Jan Brouwer and Karol Bonsenk, and Rene Wandereiken, a Belgian.

But Barry Hulshoff, another Dutch coach, has pulled out of the race as he has signed a contract with Dutch Division One team Willem II.

It is expected that the Sierra Leone FA will announce the new boss before the match against Equatorial Guinea.

The main task of the new coach is to lead the Leone Stars to the finals of the African Cup of Nations in Tunisia.

Contenders

Brouwer, who is in his 50s, was former coach of the Zambian senior national team and the Dutch under-17 national side.

Bonsenk is said to be a former player with former European Champions Ajax Amsterdam.

Wandereiken was a former coach for Belgian club Standard Liege and a former player of Italian side, Genoa.

Palmgren, coach of the Leone Stars four years ago, took the side to the 1996 African Nations Cup in South Africa.

His last match in charge was when Leone Stars lost 1-0 to Burundi in the qualifiers for the 1998 World Cup finals.