Socceroos’ surprise Toure double-up opens the door for family history

3 weeks ago 3

It has been a “random” week for the Toure family, in the best possible way.

For starters: Al Hassan Toure’s surprise selection for the Socceroos. The 25-year-old is the oldest of three very talented brothers, and none of them saw it coming, the assumption being that his chance to play for the national team had come and gone.

“It was random, basically,” explained Mohamed, 21, the middle child, and the only one with senior international experience.

For now, that is.

Al Hassan is only four games into his first A-League season with Sydney FC. He was hooked after an hour on debut, then had a goal assist in his second appearance, before scoring a hat-trick in his third. It is a promising form line, but one that probably only coach Tony Popovic thought was worthy of a call-up for Saturday’s friendly against Venezuela in the US city of Houston.

Mohamed, who is based in Denmark at Randers FC, tries to watch as many of his games as he can in the morning, so long as they don’t clash with training. He can see what Popovic presumably sees, which he saw many years ago, growing up in Adelaide: a player with levels in him, who can climb them when his body allows, and when he’s in the right headspace.

“I reckon that if he gets his confidence back, and he becomes the Al Hassan Toure that we all knew once … he could be a very, very important player in the Socceroos in the future,” Mohamed Toure said.

“He could also make a move back to Europe, wherever he wants to go. I feel like [if] he unlocks the confidence side, because he’s been through a lot of injuries - when he came to Europe, he didn’t play. I know how tough it’s been for him, but if he can keep scoring and keep getting call-ups like this to give him that extra confidence, the sky’s the limit.”

If Al Hassan and Mohamed get on the pitch together in Saturday’s friendly (1.30pm AEDT), they’ll become just the sixth set of brothers to play for Australia - and the first, since Joel and Adam Griffiths, in 2008, to do it at the same time.

And like the Griffiths family, there’s one more to come.

At the weekend, Mohamed started his first professional game with younger brother Musa, 19, who also plays at Randers, and was part of the Young Socceroos team that won the U-20 Asian Cup earlier this year.

“It wasn’t supposed to happen. It was another random one,” he said.

“The player that was meant to start got injured in the warm-up - literally the last shot he took before going in, he got injured, so they just told Musa to gear up. It was not like we knew the whole week so we had time to really prepare. It was just all of a sudden, Musa starting with you.”

Musa has a long road ahead, but given the unexpectedly wide net Popovic is casting ahead of next year’s World Cup, it’s not unfathomable that all three Toures could be playing for Australia.

BROTHERS IN ARMS: The five sets of siblings to represent the Socceroos … so far

Tony and Aurelio Vidmar
John and Ross Aloisi
Adam, Ryan and Joel Griffiths
Ryan and Dylan McGowan
Rhys and Ryan Williams

If they do that, they’ll become just the second trio of brothers to represent Australia, after Joel, Adam, and Ryan Griffiths - but they never did it together.

In his mind’s eye, Mohamed dreams of an all-Toure front three for the Socceroos: Al Hassan on the left, Musa on the right, and himself in the middle, holding up the ball for them.

“I’m more of a striker. They’re both more flairy, and they like to dribble, and with the system we play here, we play with inverted wingers, so it suits both of them,” he said.

Mohamed has enough on his plate, trying to perfect his positioning in the box so he can become a more productive striker.

As it is, though, he’s already making waves; Chelsea and their sister club, French outfit Strasbourg, are reportedly keeping a very close eye on him.

“Players could take it in two ways,” Mohamed said of the interest in him.

“Some players might see it as pressure and might start to underperform. But to be honest, for me, I just use it as motivation.

“I feel like I’m not at my best yet, or I haven’t had the dream season I wanted to have.

“If I can still get attention from big clubs like this playing the way that I am ... I keep telling myself that I am good enough, but I just need to work on a couple of things. So seeing things like this just give me extra motivation to keep working.”