Kamaldeen: How Jurić ignited my spark and made me feel free again

The arrival of Ivan Jurić has breathed new life into Kamaldeen Sulemana’s Southampton career.

Saints’ recent visit to Ipswich, Jurić’s first Premier League win in charge, marked the two-year anniversary of transfer deadline day in 2023.

Saints, then managed by Nathan Jones, secured last-minute moves for Kamaldeen and Paul Onuachu in a bid to pull clear of relegation trouble.

It’s been a “difficult journey” for the pair, admits Kamaldeen, but the trip to Portman Road showed the best of them. Kamaldeen, fresh from the bench, jinked inside and fired a 20-yard shot that goalkeeper Arijanet Muric could only parry, and Onuachu pounced to score with three minutes left, securing Saints’ first Premier League away victory of the season.

Kamaldeen speaks passionately on the subject of why there have not been more of those moments, but says he feels “the freest” he’s ever felt in his Saints career right now, and his performances reflect that. There’s a good chance Onuachu would say the same.

Kamaldeen identifies Saints’ latest manager appointment as an instant turning point in his career, admitting the weight of expectation he has felt on his shoulders since his club-record signing from Rennes has been lifted by Jurić’s approach.

“I think the coach gave me the confidence the day he arrived – the first session,” he says. “The way he wanted to play, he saw me in the system. Even though I didn’t start straightaway, I knew I was going to play at some point, I just had to be ready for the time that he starts me.

“He told me what he had to tell me and I took it on board. He just said he saw me in the past, he believes I’m a player that can help him and I should be ready for when he puts me in, because he’s going to play me.

“At that moment I was assured some minutes almost every game because he believed in my talent, but I needed to be ready when the chance came. It would be up to me.”

Kamaldeen came on as a substitute against West Ham and Crystal Palace, started against Brentford and excelled against Swansea in the FA Cup.

“It was the first win for the coach, and it gave some of us confidence, especially myself,” he reflects on the 3-0 cup triumph. “It was a boost for me, and after that things have gotten better and better, so that was a key part of my form. I’m grateful for the opportunity and glad I took it.”

It means Kamaldeen approached the FA Cup tie against Burnley as a player transformed since the last round, injected with confidence.

After scoring and assisting against Swansea, the No. 20’s first goal in 20 months, he earned another start at Old Trafford, where he terrorised the Manchester United defence in a performance that reminded everybody watching of why Saints were so keen to make this undoubted talent their most expensive player.

Kamaldeen’s greatest strength is his electrifying turn of speed. The winger’s signature move is to slow his man down on the touchline, bait him into a tackle and knock the ball past him. From there, he can’t be caught.

If Leny Yoro didn’t know this before Saints’ visit to Old Trafford, he certainly does now, as the French youth international, signed for a reported £52m in the summer, was given a chastening night by the elusive Ghanaian.

An explosive burst to turn inside Yoro opened up the space to test André Onana with a low shot in an early statement of intent from Kamaldeen, who later dropped short to receive a pass out of defence, dragging Yoro with him before suddenly letting the ball run beyond him and racing on to it, leaving the defender in his wake once more as he dribbled into the box and whipped a shot inches wide.

When Matthijs de Ligt was forced into a last-ditch tackle to deny Kamaldeen shortly before the interval, Saints took the lead from the resulting corner.

United had 15 minutes to solve the Kamaldeen conundrum at half time but seemed none the wiser when Yoro was beaten again by his fleet of foot, only for de Ligt to block his shot, before Kamaldeen pulled out to the left and breezed past Yoro with frightening ease, even from the outside lane. Whilst his placed effort rolled wide, United were powerless to stop him.

“When I feel free sometimes I feel like I can do anything I want with the ball. That’s when I feel free and physically there,” he says of his performance that night. “Obviously I need the team to perform well in order for me to do certain things because I cannot do everything on my own.

“Games like this suit my qualities very much – when there is a lot of space to run into, when there are a lot of counter-attacks, when we attack I feel alive and I feel like I’m involved in every minute of the game.

“I feel free, most importantly, because the freer I feel in my mind the better I feel in my body, because I think your mind comes first because your physicality. I think this is my second 90 minutes I played for the club, and I felt fine after the game because I felt free in the brain.

“Obviously the result didn’t go as planned but I felt free in my mind and on the pitch and I was playing based on instinct. I never thought of anything else, I just played. When I’m in that state, that’s when I do my best. That’s what the coach has given me – freedom in my brain when we have the ball.”

Whilst his potential is clear, such performances attract as many questions as answers.

The 22-year-old reckons the fee Saints paid, something he couldn’t influence, quickly became a burden he struggled to live up to under the intense microscope of the Premier League.

“I’m the transfer record here, so ever since I got here there’s always big pressure on me,” he explains. “Sometimes I feel like I play quite well, but if the team don’t win, I don’t score and I don’t assist, I haven’t fulfilled my task as a striker or as a winger.

“It’s still not enough, because I’m regarded as the transfer record and I should always be the one doing everything to get the club where it needs to be. I feel sometimes even if I’m doing well it’s still not enough – that’s the kind of pressure I’m talking about.

“I think it’s not spoken about enough. To some extent it might affect you, but it depends how much. As a player sometimes it affects people less than others, but I think it affects everybody who plays football in England. Everybody who’s ever played in England and tried to get to the top level, the outside pressure, the fans, everything, it gets to you at some point.

“It could be social media. We are always on our phones, so it’s not like we don’t see what people say about us. Some people even come into your DMs – it’s not even a post about you, it’s just sent straight to your inbox and it’s an insult, or it’s this and it’s that.

“There is pressure, both in and outside the club. Sometimes the inner side is good, it pushes us, but sometimes the outside pressure tends to become a lot and if it’s highlighted on you, it becomes very tough.”

The scrutiny started early. Jones, the manager who signed them, was sacked immediately after handing Kamaldeen and Onuachu their home debuts.

After an initial lift under interim boss Rubén Sellés, Saints finished the season without a win in their last 13 matches, condemning the club to relegation.

“In my first season me and Paul didn’t score until I scored in the last game against Liverpool,” Kamaldeen recalls, “so there was pressure from the media. ‘They came in for this amount of money, they’ve never scored, they’ve never done anything to help the team,’ so there is pressure.

“Obviously me and Paul want to score goals, we want to help the team, that’s what we were brought in for. We are trying our best to do that, but when it doesn’t come off there is always pressure coming from the outside.”

The arrival of Russell Martin as manager in summer 2023 signalled a new dawn for Saints – a chance to start again in the Championship, develop a winning habit and push for promotion. Kamaldeen was expected to be a key player.

He assisted twice against Leeds on his first start of the season – the day Saints’ club record unbeaten run of 25 games unbeaten in all competitions began – but missed all of December and January with injury, by which time the team had built such momentum that it was hard for him to reclaim his place. When he did play, he struggled for consistency of minutes and form.

“There is a lot of misunderstanding.” He’s determined to say his piece. “I was out injured for two months and I come back and there’s expectations – I’m the transfer record, so on my first day back I’m expected to be the best player on the pitch. You know what I mean?

“That’s when the pressure kicks in – when people don’t seem to understand the whole picture. You need a run of games, you need to be trusted, you need game time, you need confidence from coaches and players to be able to be yourself again after a long time being out. I felt like sometimes I was alone, in a battle.”

It’s clear Kamaldeen feels wronged by some of the media narrative that’s followed him around Southampton.

“I get a lot of stick, I get a lot of bad comments, some people question my character. There are so many things I’ve seen out there; people think I’ve got an attitude problem and that’s the reason why I wasn’t playing or the reason why I was on the bench, but I’ve never ever disrespected anybody in the club.

“I’m always on time. When I’m on the pitch I work as hard as I can – I even work better at it given the situation because I knew I had to work double if I was to get a chance. I never really played, but I was always giving my best.

“When I see stuff like ‘he’s got an attitude problem,' I don’t know where that’s coming from. When people are posting things, especially people who have followings and they look like a trusted journalist, when they bring something out that isn’t true, everyone picks up on it.

“If the whole fanbase are falling for their tricks, they tend to be harder on you, harsher on you just because they’ve heard you have a bad attitude. There is nothing to show that you have a bad attitude, they just hear it from a source they trust.

“At the training ground the coaches are telling me I’m training good, my teammates are telling me I’m training good. Unless you’re telling me my coaches are lying? Or my teammates are lying? Because I’ve never been told I’m training bad. Even when I wasn’t playing, I’ve never been told I’m training bad.

“One thing that I’ve always said: if, when I wasn’t playing under the previous coach, I wasn’t training well, do you think with this coach coming in now I would be ready immediately to play?

“I shouldn’t listen too much to what goes on because things can still affect you. I’m not perfect – I’ve seen great players make mistakes over and over again, but what defines them is how they respond.”

How Kamaldeen – and Onuachu, who scored 17 goals on loan in Turkey last season – are responding has given the Saints fans encouragement. Now the clamour is for both to start, and Kamaldeen believes their growing friendship is helping a partnership blossom on the pitch.

The pair are close, having bonded over their shared experiences – particularly on their shared journey to Staplewood every morning.

“I understand Paul,” Kamaldeen says. “Obviously he’s an African brother and we live in the same building, so we drive in every day. Every morning we drive together, when we go to get food we do it together, we are always together.

“We talk about football, we talk about life, we talk about everything. Obviously me and him have had a difficult journey coming here from the deadline day two years ago; we’ve had our ups and downs together.

“Obviously last season was better for him than it was for me, but we talk it out and the more me and Paul speak, the better I play with him and know his qualities. I think it’s talking together and being in each other’s shoes for so long. We understand each other just by looking at each other.”

Now that Kamaldeen can reflect on his first two years as a Saint, he has learned to take the lows with the highs. Most importantly he’s looking liberated on the field again, driven to entertain the fans and repay the manager who brought back his smile.

“The manager was a big part, because if I wasn’t still playing I would most likely be out,” he says of the January window. “But I was playing, the manager obviously doesn’t want me to leave, he thinks I can help him, so that’s why I stayed.

“I wouldn’t say it changed my attitude in any way, because I’ve always worked hard, always given my best. Things didn’t go as planned for me [before Jurić arrived] but I never came in not giving my best.

“I’ve been under pressure since I’ve been here. We are still under pressure, because we are fighting with the position we are in, but we, as attackers, are under pressure to win the games for the team, score goals, create chances, take our chances. I feel like if I’m on the pitch it’s my requirement.

“I also like to entertain the fans, take on players, because it cheers them up. Sometimes you need people to cheer. When I’m able to get them off their seats with a skill or a run, it gives something to the team, not just me personally, because there is more energy coming from the stands.”

With more goals like we saw against Swansea, runs like we saw against United and cameos like we saw against Ipswich, it might be more than just the safe standing sections of St Mary’s that are on their feet.

This interview was first published inside SAINTS, the matchday programme, for the recent home game against Burnley. Be sure to pick up your copy of the club publication at future home fixtures, each containing a feature interview with a current first-team player and a batch of stickers for the 2024/25 Saints sticker album.