His roots, his position, his role models… Meet Mohamed Camara!
He’s the Rouge et Blanc‘s fifth recruit in the summer of 2022! An eye-catching defensive midfielder, who does not hesitate to get forward quickly, Mohamed Camara has tied his future to the Club through 2027. A three-time Austrian champion with Red Bull Salzburg, the Malian international (15 caps, three goals) arrives in Ligue 1 with a good background. Here’s all you need to know about him.
🆕✍️🇲🇱#WelcomeMohamed pic.twitter.com/SpQwJUB6Iq
— AS Monaco 🇲🇨 (@AS_Monaco) August 14, 2022
A product of Jean-Marc Guillou’s academy 🇲🇱
Mohamed Camara is a product of his training in Mali. Scouted and trained by AS Real Bamako, a club in the capital of his native country, the young player caught the eye of those responsible for the academy of the former French coach during a match against his team. “After the match, I had the opportunity to train there again, and that’s how I was selected,” he explained recently in an interview with Goal.com.
Beginnings in central defence 🔄
In this same interview, the current Malian international (15 caps, 3 goals) reveals that he first came through as a central defender. “At the Jean-Marc Guillou Academy I played in several positions, in order to become versatile. And then in the Mali youth teams, we were playing a match in which we had difficulties in midfield. I told the coach I could help out. At the end we won, and I had a good match and so I decided to stay in midfield”, he explains with pride. Since then, he has not played again in defence.
An AFCON winner at U17 and U19 with Mali 🌍
His development moved quickly, as he was called up to the U17 national team, of which he quickly became the captain. It was even while wearing the armband that he won his first continental trophy: the U-17 Africa Cup of Nations. Two years later, after making it big in Europe in joining Red Bull Salzburg, he also won the AFCON with the U-20s, before playing the U-20 World Cup with his country later that year.
2 matchs = 2 buts 🎯
🇲🇱 Mohamed Camara, le jeune prodige du Mali a marqué au 1er et 2nd tour #TotalEnergiesAFCONQ2023. 🦅@femafoot pic.twitter.com/SJ0vXlzuHb
— CAF – FR (@caf_online_FR) June 12, 2022
A World Champion as a role model 🏆
A big fan of Steven Gerrard, whose “style of play and commitment” he says he shares, Mohamed Camara is above all a disciple of… N’Golo Kanté! “He’s a player who has three lungs, and so do I,” he told Goal.com, before admitting that he is indeed his idol. You have to admit, it’s a pretty good ambition.
He’s already lined up alongside another Monegasque 🤝
The new Monegasque midfielder is not arriving in wholly unfamiliar territory in the Principality. Besides the fact that he knows the club from his Malian international teammate Almamy Touré, a product of the Academy and a European champion last season with Frankfurt, he also knows Takumi Minamino very well. In any case, he had the opportunity to play a few games alongside him, since he had made his first starts in Salzburg during the 2019-2020 season. In January, “Taki” then headed to Liverpool.
A classy display against Bayern Munich 🇪🇺
Decidedly, the Champions League has seen a number of rather strong displays on the part of players from the Red Bull galaxy! While Takumi Minamino impressed Jürgen Klopp during a group match in the competition against the Reds, Mohamed Camara chose to shine against Bayern Munich. Last February, when his team was facing the 2020 European champions, he decided to put on a massive display. The result was an incredible performance in a one-all draw at the Red Bull Arena, with Salzburg having led 1-0 for more than an hour. He knows what it takes at a European level!
