If Lamine Camara was secretly pining for a new life at Chelsea, he was doing a pretty good job of concealing it.
When the final whistle sounded at the end of Monaco’s 2-1 victory at Paris Saint-Germain on Friday night, the Senegalese midfielder spontaneously punched the air in delight and then strode over to salute the hundreds of supporters in the visitors’ section.
Moments later, after he had swapped shirts with Desire Doue and shared a brief embrace with Monaco coach Filipe Luis, the television cameras alighted upon him, surrounded by his team-mates, and a broad smile was illuminating his face.
Camara may have come within touching distance of becoming a Chelsea player during the madcap final hours of the summer transfer window on Tuesday, but his committed performance against PSG and full-bodied celebrations afterwards suggested that he still feels very much a Monaco man.
Asked what he had done to elicit such a commanding display from the midfielder, who would have joined Chelsea had American team-mate Folarin Balogun rejected his transfer to Everton earlier than the last minute, Filipe Luis said: “I didn’t do anything.
“He is different. He is this type of player you don’t see often in football. His head, his mentality, his ambition, the way he competes — he is one of a kind. We have to enjoy this kid. He is not going to (stay) long because he is top. We are very proud of him.”
Lamine Camara shone as Monaco shocked PSG in Paris (Christine Poujoulat/Getty Images)
In coming from behind to win at the Parc des Princes, Monaco became the first team to record three successive Ligue 1 victories over PSG since the club from the capital came under Qatari ownership in 2011.
Even more significantly, it preserved Monaco’s perfect start to the season under former Flamengo coach Filipe Luis and gave them a seven-point advantage over the European champions, who are still to win this season after four domestic games in all competitions.
Following the turmoil of Tuesday night, when Camara and Balogun had teetered for several hours on the brink of leaving the club, only for both to end up staying, it represented an unexpectedly glorious conclusion to a deeply challenging week.
Balogun, who walked away from a move to Everton at the 11th hour after the Merseyside club flagged concerns over his medical exam, was left out of Monaco’s squad for the game and did not travel to Paris to watch it.
Officially, he is still building up his fitness, but Monaco’s decision to omit him from their squad for this season’s Conference League — announced hours before kick-off against PSG — suggested they are continuing to prepare for life without him.
Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday — during which he sought to defend Monaco from the criticism they had received over the collapse of the Balogun and Camara deals — CEO Thiago Scuro had indicated that the American striker could yet leave for a league such as Saudi Arabia, where the transfer window remains open.
A Monaco source, speaking anonymously to protect relationships, told The Athletic: “It has been a long and challenging week but we are looking forward to turning the page.
“Folarin Balogun was not involved against PSG because he is still building up fitness after the World Cup, but he trained with the rest of the squad on the day before the game. Lamine Camara has inherited Paul Pogba’s No 8 shirt and been promoted to our group of vice-captains, which shows that he still has a role to play.”
Monaco, who missed out on Champions League qualification last season, are under pressure to offload players after France football’s financial watchdog, the National Directorate of Management Control (DNCG), placed restrictions on the club’s wage bill at the end of June.
While Monaco are understood to remain open to offers for Balogun, the source indicated that they are more open-minded about the idea of Camara completing the season at the club.
Balogun ultimately rejected a move to Everton (Valery Hache/Getty Images)
The 22-year-old midfielder’s display on the European champions’ turf helped to explain why.
Occupying his usual role alongside skipper Denis Zakaria in the double pivot at the base of Monaco’s midfield, the Senegal international was sometimes careless in possession, notably giving the ball away in dangerous areas on a couple of occasions in the first half. There were signs of frustration too, with arms flung wide in exasperation whenever the ball was not moved quickly enough for his liking.
But he grew in stature as the game progressed and played a central role in the disciplined rearguard action that enabled Monaco to see out the match, snuffing out PSG attacks on the edge of his own box and surging into space with the ball whenever the opportunity to do so presented itself.
“All the lights were on Lamine,” said team-mate and goal-scorer Nazinho, in reference to the headlines generated by Camara’s aborted move to Chelsea. “But we saw how he performed today.”
While Monaco adjust to their new status as early-season pace-setters, beaten coach Luis Enrique was left to pick over the bones of a result that brought PSG back down to earth with a bump following the pre-match announcement that he and several players — including Willian Pacho, Joao Neves and Fabian Ruiz — had signed contract extensions.
The defeat means PSG have failed to win any of their first three Ligue 1 games of the campaign for the first time since 2012.
After losing 1-0 to Coupe de France winners Lens in the Trophee des Champions, they twice came back from 2-0 down to snatch 2-2 draws away to first Rennes and then Lille.
But in their first home game of the season, after their opening match was switched to Rennes due to problems with the playing surface at the Parc, a third consecutive escape act proved beyond them.
PSG dominated the first half and went ahead when Marquinhos used his shoulder to bundle a cross from Khvicha Kvaratskhelia past visiting goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky. But after left-sided pair Flavio Nazinho and Stanis Idumbo stunned the hosts with goals on the break in the second half, the closest PSG came to a leveller was a stoppage-time curler from substitute Ousmane Dembele that Hradecky brilliantly turned behind.
During a characteristically bullish post-match press conference, Luis Enrique declared that PSG had been comfortably the better side and told reporters: “If you want to bet on who will be champions at the end of the championship, we can bet.”
As for Camara ending the week a Monaco hero? Few, surely, would have bet on that.