A West Ham player I love for no reason

It was far too easy to do another hero-worshipping article on Carlton Cole, so I decided to look back to my first matches at Upton Park as a ‘Daddy’s girl’ at 10 years old.

I have two main memories of this time – Jeremy Nicholas saying “Our own fox: HAYDEN FOXE!” when we played Leicester, and Titi Camara.

Oh Titi, with his bald head and his waving to the crowd as he warmed up at pitch side. Him and his massive grin made me so happy as a youngster.

Looking back, I had no footballing reason to love him. He may be a Liverpool cult hero, but he didn’t perform in any way for the mighty Hammers. And to think this is was his statement when he came to the club:

“I’ve come to West Ham to play, play, play – and score, score, score. If it was a question of money, I could have stayed at Liverpool and picked it up. I need to play, and if I don’t it is totally pointless.”

Of course, he only went on to make 14 appearances for the club and score zero goals. Bit of a given after that statement of intent!

Titi went on to play for Al-Attihad, Al-Siliya and Amiens, with a much better scoring record at these clubs. Since retiring from playing, he had a stint as Minister of Sport in Guinea.

I’m still not entirely sure why I loved him, but I did! He encapsulates my first memories of West Ham, and 13 years later, I’m still loving players for no reason.

Is there a player that you love and don’t know why? Leave a comment or tweet me at @alwaysintune.