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Henri dashes in from the wing

Henri Camara became the toast of Africa when his two goals against Sweden saw Senegal become only the second African team to qualify for the World Cup quarter-finals with two goals.

However, he nearly turned out for West African rivals Guinea rather than the Teranga Lions.

Camara's family hail from Kissidougou in southern Guinea, but he grew up in Dakar, the Senegalese capital.

There he played his way up through local club sides, ending up at first division side Diaraf Dakar before heading for Strasbourg in France where he failed to make an impact.

He left Strasbourg for three years in Switzerland, where he played for Neuchatel Xamax and Grasshoppers before reaching France where he now plays for Sedan.

Camara was a Swiss championship winner in 2001 with Grasshoppers Zurich bfeore moving back to France.

According to Alassane Youla, the chief of national competitions at Guinea's Football Federation, Camara was suggested to Guinea as a player in 1997, but at the time the Guinean officials did not really rate him.

Youla says Camara's uncle Maxime Camara, himself three times African club champion in the 1970s with the legendary Guinean side Hafia, suggested Guinean selectors consider him for the national side during a trip to Conakry in 1997.

They turned him down and he's gone on to play for Senegal, where he has earned nearly 40 caps and has now helped them reach the World Cup quarter-finals.

It's ironic that as he enjoys World Cup success, Guinea were kicked out of the World Cup qualifiers by world soccer body FIFA last year after the government sacked national football federation board when the Guineans failed to beat Malawi in a qualifier at home.

Camara has been part of the Senegalese revolution from the start. He played in the 2000 when Senegal reached the quarter-finals and 2002 African Cup of Nations finalswhen Senegal reached their first final.

At the 2000 finals in Nigeria, he was rated among the best players at the tournament, but he may be remembered more in the 2002 tournament from his misses in the final. In some ways they summed up a tricky wide player who sometimes has difficulty delivering the final product.

All those misses would have been forgotten with his ninth international goal, the golden one against Sweden, and up until that point arguably Senegal's most important goal ever.