CONAKRY- Guinean football still in mourning by the disappearance of one of its most prestigious sons, who devoted his life to the development and promotion of Guinean football. Mohamed CAMARA known by the nickname Mohamed ASK (so much so that his name was confused with his one and only club of his life) had football in his veins. Companion emeritus of the late Hassan Thermos, former President of AS KALOUM, himself died on October 6, 2014 following a cardiac arrest, they formed a duo who wrote one of the most beautiful pages of history of this legendary club from the Gbassikolo peninsula, created on the ashes of Kaloum Star, a few years after the famous Presidents Cheick Abdel Kader Sangare, Seny Mounafanyi, Dominique Traoré etc…
It is appropriate to recall the collective memory that Mohamed ASK and IBRAHIMA SORY CONTE, former President of HOROYA AC and former Vice President of the Guinean Football Federation, were the champions of the fight for the admission of Clubs to the General Assembly of the Guinean Football Federation in 1998, formerly composed only of Members of the Regional Football Leagues. Mohamed CAMARA was therefore elected Member of the Executive Office of the FGF, in charge of the National Teams from 2003 to 2015 where his expertise and his passion to win, allowed the Syli National A of Guinea to qualify for the final phases of the CAN Tunisia 2004 , Egypt 2006, Ghana 2008 and Gabon 2012, notwithstanding the unforgettable clashes in qualifying for the 2006 and 2010 World Cups.
He was at the epicenter of contacts and administrative procedures for the qualification of Dian Böbö BALDE, Kaba Diawara and many others, in the Guinean national representative team. Only a few months after the return of Syli National from Franceville to Gabon where the team, although not qualified for the second round, had won over with the quality of its game impressed by Coach Michel Dussuyer, Mohamed was struck down by a terrible stroke and was immediately evacuated to France to receive intensive care. Unfortunately, the illness got the better of him this morning of Good Friday of September 8, 2023, around 10 a.m. (French time), at the Sèvre et Loire Hospital Center (CHSL), Vertou in the town of Stade de la Beaujoire – Louis Fonteneau, the seventh largest in France at present. Responding to the call of our CREATOR in the city of legends like Philippe Gondet, Henri Michel, Maxime Bossis, Japhet N’Doram, world champions Didier Deschamps, Marcel Desailly, Christian Karembeu, means that our illustrious deceased was born and lived for Football.
His happiness, misfortunes, joys, sorrows, friendships, enmities are linked to Football which he served without trumpet or fanfare in the greatest humility which distinguishes the true clerks from the vain Speaking of Mohamed CAMARA, we are obliged to speak of Djibril Cisse Elka, former footballer of Etoile de Guinée residing in Nantes, who took care of him, without stopping, during these long and painful years of his illness in France and in whose hands, with the young Albert Soumah, he returned the soul this morning in Nantes.
In these painful circumstances, I have a pious thought for his family, his friends, the President and Members of the Executive Board of ASK KALOUM, the Supporters and Sympathizers of the Club, the leaders of the Ligue 1, 2 and National Division Clubs , the Regional Football Leagues, the Associations and Interest Groups, the Guinean Football Normalization Committee and all those who are affected by this sad death to whom I offer my most emotional condolences, but also, for his companions in the Federation Guinean Football and the Clubs which preceded him in the kingdom of heaven and with whom he worked tirelessly for the promotion and development of Guinean football, I want to name the late Bruno Bangoura, Sekou Fofana, Fodé Capi Camara, Aly Bangoura Altafini, Agnès Camara, Amadou Benthe Diallo, Lahassane Youla, Fabert Tolno Tessema, Elhadj Aboubacar Baratte, Kemoko Keita, Bah Oumar, Hassan Thermos, Abdoul Karim Bangoura BAK, Sorel Sankon, Hassan Haoui and many others. . With the death of Mohamed ASK, I am convinced, once again, that “ life is worth nothing, even if nothing is worth life ».
To obtain further information on the late Mohamed CAMARA, you can call Mr. Djibril Cisse Elka at +33 7 68 79 57 13 also on Wathsap. May Allah, in His infinite mercy, welcome the soul of our late Mohamed ASK into his Eternal Paradise.
By Ibrahima Blasco Barry, former secretary general of FEGUIFOOT