Watford’s Hassane Kamara: ‘I’ve fought all my life to play football’

“That’s the beauty of football,” smiles Hassane Kamara. “Every player has a different background and has taken a different path. But when we meet on the pitch, we all try to do our best for the fans.”

The Watford and Ivory Coast defender is reflecting on a week that he came up against Raheem Sterling, Jack Grealish, Diogo Jota and Mohamed Salah in successive matches for club and country. Even if Kamara finished on the losing side on both occasions, making his debuts at Wembley and Anfield in the space of a few days was quite an achievement for the 28-year-old, who only had his first taste of top-flight football after being promoted to Ligue 1 with Reims in 2018.

Yet the left-back, who is a product of the renowned Châteauroux academy in central France, admits he is still getting over the 3-0 defeat in Ivory Coast’s first senior international against England when his captain, Serge Aurier, was sent off in the first half.

“For us it was a chance to make history but we played against a big team and the context of the game was difficult,” Kamara says. “We were very disappointed – we wanted to win because it’s the first game against England and we played in a big stadium with great players. After the red card it was very difficult because the England team are very smart …”

It has certainly been a whirlwind nine months for Kamara, who made his international debut last year after excelling for Nice before moving to Watford at the start of January. Despite a change of manager when Claudio Ranieri was shown the door a few weeks later and replaced by Roy Hodgson, a series of committed performances in 12 Premier League starts so far have already made him a fans’ favourite at Vicarage Road, with Kamara ranked among the league’s best