Lamine Camara Focused on Monaco After Chelsea Move Collapse

Lamine Camara insists he has “turned the page” on his collapsed move to Chelsea and is locking in on Monaco’s fast-starting Ligue 1 campaign.

The 22-year-old midfielder was on the brink of a £47.1m switch to Stamford Bridge, having completed a medical, only for the transfer to fall apart in the final hours of the window.

Two Chelsea bids had already been knocked back earlier in the summer, but Monaco softened their stance as deadline pressure grew and uncertainty swirled around Folarin Balogun’s proposed move to Everton. For a spell, Camara looked the more likely to leave.

As doubts over Balogun’s transfer deepened, Monaco were prepared to cash in on the Senegal international. Then the Balogun deal seemed to revive. The mood shifted. Monaco’s position on Camara hardened again.

In the end, the window shut and nothing moved. Both Balogun and Camara stayed.

“There was a possibility I could leave,” Camara said before Monaco’s game against Strasbourg on Saturday. “It didn’t go through at the last minute and that’s part of football. I’ve turned the page and am focusing on the season.”

The stance fits Monaco’s summer strategy. Sources in France had suggested the club needed at least one major sale and were keener to offload Balogun, while a figure inside the Ligue 1 side had previously made clear it would take a “substantial fee” to prise Camara away.

On the pitch, the noise of the market has barely touched them. Monaco opened the season with three straight league wins and went into the weekend second behind Rennes, holding a game in hand.

“I can help the team a lot,” Camara said. “Football moves fast. Maybe other opportunities will come along. But for now, I’m staying focused on the season with Monaco.”

For now, the Premier League dream is shelved. The title race, and Camara’s role at the heart of it, is very much alive.