Ilay Camara is one of the great satisfactions of Standard this season. International in Belgian youth teams, he could however opt for another national team.
Clearly, the Belgian Union is facing a real drain of talent in recent times. Two years ago, Anass Zaroury and Bilal El Khannouss opted for Morocco; soon, Zakaria El Ouahdi could officially join them, he who has already won the U23 CAN with the Moroccan Olympic team.
Konstantinos Karetsas is a hot issue, and very recently, it was Matias Fernandez-Pardo who publicly announced that he preferred to play for Spain and that his choice was therefore made – which explains in passing why he was not called up to U21 by Gill Swerts.
A name that is less talked about, but which has already been called in Espoirs (without playing), is Ilay Camara (21 years old). Of course, the Standard full-back has a long way to go before being Red Devil, but Camara has enjoyed an impressive rise in recent years, with a superb 2023-2024 season at RWDM. This season, he is one of the rare satisfactions of Number 16.
With Senegal from March?
Performances which did not escape… the Senegalese federation. According to information from Footsenan online media specializing in Senegalese football, the FSF would have contacted Ilay Camara and his entourage in order to convince him to opt for the Lions of Teranga.
The objective is clear: to convince Rouche very quickly so that he joins Senegal from the qualifying matches for the 2026 World Cup next March. The media claims that Ilay Camara “has been waiting for this opportunity for a long time”, and that he would therefore be inclined to accept (having very little chance of becoming a Belgian international in the short term).
Ilay Camara would thus become the driving force of the Lions of Teranga, who also convinced talents like Malick Thiaw (AC Milan) and Yehvann Diouf (Reims) to join the Senegal selection.
