Hooray Toure - starlet Mohamed to join brother Al Hassan in green and gold

Breakout Adelaide United youngster Mohamed Toure is set to join older brother Al Hassan in the national team ranks, with a call up for Trevor Morgan’s next gen Joeys looming.

Toure

15-year-old Mohamed Toure (right) celebrates becoming the youngest ever A-League goalscorer. Source: Getty Images

The Guinea-born, Australian-raised siblings have brought desperately needed effervescence and electricity to the A-League this season, with Al Hassan helping the Olyroos qualify for the Tokyo Olympic Games before succumbing to a stress fracture.

Exit Al Hassan, 19, enter Mohamed, 15, to captivate the competition as the third youngest debutant in A-League history with six eye-catching cameos for the Reds.

Turning 16 on Thursday, Mohamed was on Morgan’s radar as far back as last winter, with only red tape preventing him being blooded in the build up to FIFA U-17 World Cup in Brazil.

But the kid - whose Liberian father Amara escaped civil war in his homeland to bring his family to Australia - is pencilled in for September’s AFC U-16 Championship in Bahrain, coronavirus permitting.

The top-four progress to the 2021 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Peru.

“Mohamed has tremendous pace and power - but there’s a lot more to him than just that,” said Morgan.

“I’ve watched quite a bit of him, stretching back to last April, and he came into camp with us in July, and did very well.

“It was only FIFA requesting a bit of extra paper work that stopped us taking him to the (World Cup) qualifiers in Vietnam last year.

“Of course he’s still learning but there’s a lot already to his game.

“He can use both feet and play as a striker or out wide. If he receives the ball in behind he’s a threat.

“It it comes to feet he can set you up with a move or two, and then explode and shoot.

“He can cross a good ball, and take players on one-on-one.

“He has a physical advantage also but is definitely not without technical quality, and can be used in various ways.

“We’re excited about that - and we want to give him experience at international level. The kid deserves to be there.”

Morgan is liaising closely with Adelaide football director Bruce Djite, himself a former Olyroo and Socceroo, to micro-manage Toure’s international future.

“The feedback from Adelaide is that they would like Mohamad to have this experience,” added Morgan.

“The only reason he wouldn’t be traveling with us to tournaments would be that he’s required in the first team.

“We’d understand that - there’s a good relationship there with Bruce and the club.

“Whatever decisions get made will be made with the best interests of Mohamed at heart.”

In conjunction with Australia’s technical staff, Morgan is helping put in place video assignments and home training programs for players left in hiatus by the worldwide coronavirus shutdown.

“We’re doing all we can to try and stay engaged with the players,” he added.

“Now they’re all training in the park or in their backyard. And we’re trying to find ways of giving them a bit of momentum.”

A planned seven-day camp in Qatar next month, followed by a UEFA-backed mini-tournament in Serbia for matches against the hosts, Tanzania and Northern Ireland has fallen victim to the pandemic, with Morgan adding: “It’s a matter of what do the kids do in the meantime, and how do we give them some love?”


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3 min read
Published 23 March 2020 2:48pm
By Dave Lewis

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