Kémoko Camara

I will begin profiling some of the squad members of the Syli Nationale with their first team goalkeeper Kémoko Camara.

Camara is one of the most senior members of the squad at 33 years of age. On a squad composed of players mostly in their mid-20s, he is one of the most experienced squad members. He has been the first choice keeper for some time now including in the recent world cup qualifiers and at the Nations Cup in Ghana earlier this year.

Camara has worn the Guinea shirt plenty of times and has not been immune from the occasional blunder. In the quarterfinals of the 2004 Nations Cup against host Mali, it was Camara who made the fatal mistake that allowed the Malians to advance to the semi-finals with a 2-1 victory. Camara allowed a harmless strike from Mahamadou Diarra to slip through his arms and into the back of the net in injury time of the second half. Two years later in Egypt Camara was not the first choice keeper but resumed active duty again shortly thereafter. At the Nations Cup earlier this year he gave up plenty of goals but had no catastrophic blunders such as in 2004. And some of the goals he conceded were due more to shoddy defending (see all 5 goals against Cote d’Ivoire) then due to his own missteps.

At club level he has been a true journeyman having played for clubs in Guinea, Belgium, Israel, and South Africa. He was also a member of Dundee United in Scotland for a short while but never made an actual appearance. He currently does not have club.

Camara is by no means a world class keeper as his club resume would show. He is far from it in fact. Despite that Camara is good enough for Guinea to qualify for the World Cup. Africa as a continent seems devoid of world class keepers with the best probably being Carlos Idriss Kameni of Cameroon and Essam El-Hadary of Egypt. That being said Camara is no worse than most of the first choice national team goalies on the continent. And not many other players can boast of having a world class moustache such as his.

That said it would not hurt for a younger keeper to step for Guinea and challenge Camara’s first team spot. As it is that does not seem likely to happen and it will be with Camara protecting the goal that the Syli Nationale will have to qualify for the World Cup. Hopefully he is up to the task.