Lamin Conteh

Conteh made his international debut for Sierra Leone in 1994, at the age of seventeen.

At the age of 18, Conteh was selected to play for Sierra Leone in the 1994 Africa Cup of Nations held in Tunisia. He was also picked in the squad for the following tournament in South Africa two years later. After a match against Nigeria in 2000, Conteh claimed that the Sierra Leone Football Association owed him $2,000, and refused to play for his country until the money was paid to him. The matter was later resolved, and in 2002, he took over the captaincy of the national team from Mohamed Kallon.

Conteh was born and raised in Freetown, Sierra Leone to muslim parents from the limba ethnic group. A Muslim himself, Conteh grew up in poverty. As a teenager, he was frequently seen playing street football across Freetown with boys much older than he was. As a teenager, he was considered the best secondary school footballer in Sierra Leone. He dropped out of the Ahmmadiyya Muslim Secondary School in Freetown in 1992 to become a professional footballer.

He is widely considered the most talented and most popular Sierra Leonean footballer in the 1990s and early 2000s. Junior Tumbu had a talent for dribbling and he played as a supporting striker or attacking midfielder. During his playing days for the Leone Stars (Sierra Leone national football team) Conteh was by far the most famous Sierra Leonean footballer within Sierra Leone, and he was beloved by Sierra Leonean football fans who knew him by his famous nickname Junior Tumbu.

Lamin Conteh (born 20 June 1976, in Freetown), widely known by his nickname Junior Tumbu, is a retired Sierra Leonean international footballer.