Ousmane Camara (born 20 February 2001) is a Guinean professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

for Spanish club Castellón and the Guinea national team.

Early life

Camara was born in

Conakry Conakry ( , ; ; ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guinea. A port city, it serves as the economic, financial and cultural centre of Guinea. Its population as of the 2014 Guinea census was 1,660,973. The current population of C ...

, Guinea to poverty as the last of 6 children. He was educated by an uncle 50 km from his parents, who taught him to play football. At the age of 17, he decided to leave the country and went to Mali, then Guinea, before landing in Libya where he was imprisoned for 3 months; there he was beaten and saw inmates get killed. He escaped the prison after a fight between inmates and guards, and reached a refugee camp on the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

. Earning meals by playing football, he left on a raft to

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

with other refugees. Almost drowning on the voyage, he landed in Italy and hid in a toilet on a train to France. The following year, his talents where noted by

Auxerre Auxerre ( , , Burgundian language (Oïl), Burgundian: ''Auchoirre'') is the capital (Prefectures in France, prefecture) of the Yonne Departments of France, department and the fourth-largest city in the Burgundy historical region southeast of Par ...

and he joined their youth academy in 2018.

Club career

In 2019, he was promoted to

's reserves and signed a professional contract that kept him at the club until 2022. In the 2022–23 season, he was one of the top scorers for Auxerre's reserves in the

Championnat National 2 The Championnat National 2, commonly known as National 2 and formerly known as Championnat de France Amateur (CFA), is a Association football, football league competition. The league serves as the fourth tier of French football league system be ...

. On 27 December 2022, he extended his contract with the club for 2+1 years. He made his professional debut with Auxerre as a late substitute in a 3–2

Ligue 1 Ligue 1 (; ), officially known as Ligue 1 McDonald's France, McDonald's for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in France and the highest level of the French football league system. Administered by the Ligue de ...

loss to

Monaco Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a Sovereign state, sovereign city-state and European microstates, microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria, in Western Europe, ...

on 28 December 2022. On 24 January 2024, Camara was loaned to

Ligue 2 Ligue 2 (, League 2), also known as Ligue 2 BKT due to sponsorship reasons, is a French professional football league. The league serves as the second division of French football and is one of two divisions making up the Ligue de Football Prof ...

side

Annecy Annecy ( , ; , also ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of the Haute-Savoie Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, regi ...

. On 28 August, he moved to Spanish

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commonly known as Segunda División or La Liga 2, and officially known as LaLiga HyperMotion for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spa ...

side Castellón.

International career

Camara was called up to the Guinea U23s in November 2022, but withdrew from the selection. He was called up again for a set of 2023 U-23 Africa Cup of Nations qualification matches in March 2023. Camara made his debut for the senior Guinea national team on 10 June 2024 in a World Cup qualifier against

Mozambique Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Afr ...

Ben M'Hamed El Abdi Stadium Ben M'Hamed El Abdi Stadium is a multi-use stadium in El Jadida, Morocco. It is currently used mostly for football (soccer), football matches and hosts the home games of Difaa El Jadida. The stadium holds 15,000 people. It was named in honor of B ...

in El Jadida, Morocco. He substituted Aguibou Camara in the 84th minute of a 1–0 Mozambique victory.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Camara, Ousamen 2001 births Living people Sportspeople from Conakry Prisoners and detainees of Libya Guinean men's footballers 21st-century Guinean sportsmen Guinea men's youth international footballers Guinea men's international footballers AJ Auxerre players FC Annecy players CD Castellón footballers Ligue 1 players Ligue 2 players Championnat National 2 players Championnat National 3 players Men's association football forwards Guinean expatriate men's footballers Guinean expatriate sportspeople in France Expatriate men's footballers in France Guinean expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Footballers at the 2024 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers for Guinea