Some players take years to win over the Kop. Titi Camara needed a matter of weeks.
The Guinean forward was at Liverpool for only 18 months and played just one season of first-team football, but in that time he scored 10 goals in 37 appearances, lit up Anfield with his flicks and flair, and gave supporters one of the most moving nights the old ground has ever seen.
More than a quarter of a century later, he is still a genuine cult hero. And his story did not end when he left Merseyside. He went on to coach his country and later became Guinea’s minister of sports.
From Conakry to Marseille
Aboubacar Sidiki Camara, known to everyone as Titi, was born in Conakry, the capital of Guinea, on 17 November 1972.
He began his professional career in France with Saint-Étienne in 1990, before moving on to Lens and then Olympique Marseille.
At Marseille he played in the 1999 UEFA Cup final. That summer, Gérard Houllier brought him to Anfield.
Houllier’s summer of change
Houllier was preparing for his first full season in charge, and he was rebuilding the side. Camara was one of seven new arrivals, alongside Sami Hyypiä, Stéphane Henchoz, Dietmar Hamann, Vladimir Šmicer, Sander Westerveld and Erik Meijer.
Of all the new faces, Camara made the quickest impression.
On his debut, at Hillsborough on 7 August 1999, he scored the winner as Liverpool beat Sheffield Wednesday 2-1.
Later that month he scored a superb goal at Elland Road as Liverpool won 2-1 at Leeds United.
Supporters took to him straight away. He was quick, direct and unpredictable, the kind of player who could make something happen out of nothing.
Jamie Carragher later summed up the impact he made.
“When he first came, the first three or four months, we all thought what have we got here – Pele? Every time you gave him the ball he was flicking it over someone’s head or scoring some great goals.”
The night he played for his father
The moment that sealed his place in Liverpool hearts came on Wednesday 27 October 1999, when West Ham United visited Anfield.
Only hours before the game, Camara was told that his father had died.
With Michael Owen and Robbie Fowler both injured, Liverpool were short of forwards. Nobody would have blamed Camara for stepping aside. Instead, he asked to play.
Just before half-time, Rigobert Song reached the byline and sent a low cross into the six-yard box. Camara forced the ball past Shaka Hislop, then sank to his knees in front of the Anfield Road end.
It was the only goal of the game, and Liverpool won 1-0.
Afterwards, Houllier explained what had happened. “He lost his dad during the day but he told me, ‘I want to play for my father.’ He was crying after he scored because it was such an emotional day.”
To play at all in those circumstances would have been remarkable. To score the winner was something else entirely. From that night on, Titi Camara was one of Anfield’s own.
The goal was the middle one of three in successive league games. He had already scored at Southampton that weekend, and he scored again when Bradford City came to Anfield the following Monday.
Goals to remember
There were more good days to come. In December he scored a cracker in a 2-0 win over Coventry City at Anfield.
Then, on 13 February 2000, came perhaps his most important goal. Liverpool went to Highbury to face Arsenal, and in the first half Steven Gerrard split the home defence with a superb through-ball. Camara took his time and finished calmly for the only goal of the game.
A 1-0 win at Highbury was a big result for Houllier’s young side, and Camara was the man who delivered it.
He finished the season with 10 goals in 37 appearances, second only to Michael Owen in Liverpool’s scoring charts.
A sudden end
The following season did not go to plan. Camara was injured in a pre-season friendly against Parma, and the arrival of Emile Heskey meant even more competition up front.
He found himself behind Heskey, Owen and Fowler in the pecking order, and his relationship with Houllier broke down. In October 2000 he asked for a transfer.
He never played for Liverpool again. On 21 December 2000 he joined Harry Redknapp’s West Ham for £1.5m.
“I need to play, and if I don’t it is totally pointless,” he said at the time.
Sadly, his spell at Upton Park did not work out. He played 14 times without scoring, and in January 2003 he went on loan to Al-Ittihad in Saudi Arabia. He later played for Al-Siliya in Qatar and finished his career back in France with Amiens.
Captain, coach and minister
Throughout his career, Camara was a mainstay of the Guinea national team, and he captained his country.
In June 2009 he was named Guinea’s head coach, taking over from Robert Nouzaret, although his spell in charge lasted only a few months.
At the end of 2010 came the most remarkable chapter of all. President Alpha Condé named him Guinea’s minister of sports, and he became the first former sportsman to hold a government post in the country.
He held the role until October 2012, when he was one of several ministers replaced in a government reshuffle.
Not many former Liverpool strikers can say they have served in their country’s government.
Once a Red
Titi Camara’s time at Anfield was short, and it ended sooner than anyone would have liked. But some players are measured by more than numbers.
In 2006, in the official Liverpool website’s poll of the 100 Players Who Shook The Kop, he was voted in at number 91. That is quite something for a player who spent only one season in the first team.
He gave Liverpool fans flicks, flair and some wonderful goals. Above all, he gave them that night against West Ham, when a grieving son played for his father and found the net.
Kopites have never forgotten it.
