Leon Kofana: ready for a professional contract

One of Solomon Islands’ most promising footballers seems ready for a full professional opportunity abroad, the strong defender Leon Kofana just celebrated his 18th birthday and, alongside other key players such as Raphael Lea’i and Charles Mani, Kofana seems to belong to a golden generation of footballers who will come to the football-mad Solomon Islands.

According to FIFA regulations, a football player can only sign a contract with a club based abroad if he is at least 18-years old – Kofana’s recent birthday now entitles him to take advantage of any opportunities that may arise in the near future in overseas’ football.

Although he is still very young, Kofana has already had some good experiences in his career: he helped the Solomon Islands U-17 side qualify for the FIFA U-17 World Cup – he played all the matches in both qualifiers and also the World Stage event, which was held in Brazil in 2019. Kofana had a scholarship to Scots College in New Zealand, where he played school football and also appeared in training and friendly matches for the Wellington Phoenix youth squad. In 2020, Kofana returned to his country to represent Henderson Eels in the OFC Champions League, where he was a key figure in the successful campaign that qualified his team to the knockout stages.

Kofana recently signed a two-year contract with the Solomon Islands-based football agency Basi Futbol. Thanks to the efforts of his representatives, Kofana recently spent two weeks under trials with Australia’s top-club Melbourne Victory – just before the outbreak of COVID-19. According to reliable sources, there are already some proposals from overseas to acquire the services of the young Solomon Islands player, but due to the current state of concern on health regulations, negotiations have been put on hold.