Adelaide United’s teenage sensation Al Hassan Toure reflects on his journey from western Africa to FFA Cup goalscoring hero
His Dad used to travel Africa playing soccer just to put food on his struggling family’s table. Now Reds teenage sensation Al Hassan Toure wants to repay his family’s sacrifices by extending his FFA Cup goalscoring heroics.
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Al Hassan Toure’s father spent his early 20s travelling across western Africa, playing semi-professional soccer just to put food on his struggling family’s table.
Nearly two decades on, Adelaide United’s teenage sensation was dedicating his own football heroics to another loved one, who sacrificed everything to raise him and his five siblings.
But she was not among the 40 or so friends and relatives gathered at Hindmarsh Stadium last week to witness Toure’s FFA Cup quarter-final winner against Newcastle Jets.
“My Dad used to play football just to get money to feed the family,” said Toure, who notched his fourth goal in three games to send the Reds to the last four of the knockout competition.
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“But when I scored that (Jets) goal, I was just thinking of my Mum.
“Mum doesn’t really like watching my games (in person) because she gets nervous that I’m going to get injured or miss a goal.
“But she’s suffered a lot for me throughout the years, so all of this is for her.
“We have a large family and we came from a poor background.
“We only had one car, so when my Dad took it to work she would walk the kids to school, then take me to all my training and matches.
“Now that she sees me on TV doing what I love, she’s always in tears.
“It’s incredible what’s she done raising us kids. She deserves the best.”
Toure’s opportunist strike, via a Glen Moss goalkeeping error, was his latest show of gratitude to mother, Mawa, and father, Amara, in a stunning emergence on the sport’s national stage.
But that had not prevented him building a loyal following in his homeland.
His first phone call after the Newcastle match was to his grandmother, also called Mawa, in Guinea, who had already seen a video of his goal.
“My parents struggled hard to get us to Australia,” Toure, 19, said.
“But my grandma is really proud of me.
“She told me to keep doing what I’m doing, because I’m inspiring a lot of people back home to play soccer and to try to chase their dreams as well.
“That’s a big inspiration for me too.”
A five-year-old Toure took his first football steps at Croydon Kings, whose senior home ground was located across the road from the house he grew up in.
“I could watch games from my bedroom,” recalled the former Underdale High student.
His rise through the club’s ranks was swift.
Toure made his NPL debut aged 16, before his raw skill and energy grabbed the Reds’ attention.
He went on to bag five goals in 15 games for United’s youth team in the SA top flight this past winter.
Remarkably Toure had spent most of his career as a winger, before being drafted in as a No. 9 while George Blackwood was injured and Kristian Opseth awaited his international clearance.
He said senior players Michael Jakobsen, Mirko Boland and Ben Halloran, as well as assistant coach and ex-Socceroos striker Carl Veart, had eased his transition into the professional ranks.
“It was all a big surprise,” said Toure, who scored 12 minutes into his debut away to Melbourne Knights in August.
“I was real nervous, because since I came to United I’ve been looking up to the senior boys.
“Just playing alongside them in that first FFA Cup game felt like a dream to me, but they’ve really helped me a lot.
“They tell me before every game ‘just play how you play’.
“‘You’re here for a reason and you’ve been scoring for a reason, so just enjoy it’.”
A family holiday to Guinea three years ago opened Toure’s eyes to the ongoing hardships and poverty experienced daily by many people in his birthplace.
He hoped to be a be a role model for others from disadvantaged backgrounds, including younger brothers Mohamed and Musa, who were excelling in FFSA’s development programs.
“When I went back, it taught me that you can’t take anything for granted.
“Walking on the streets, you see homeless people everywhere and my goal in life is to help people that haven’t had the chance that I’ve had to play football.
“But right now it’s all about playing minutes on the park, scoring more goals, trying to keep the team winning and hopefully collecting some silverware by the end of the year.”