Anas Isse Mohamed is a 15-year-old forward who plays for Somalia U-17. Information about domestic football in Somalia is hard to come by so it is not entirely clear where he plays his club football.
Mohamed is a very physically small player, standing around 5’5″ (1.65 m) with a very slim build. The Somali team was notably smaller than their opponents at this tournament, likely a downstream effect of the country’s instability in the 21st century. Of course, Mohamed is only 15 so it is likely he will develop physically at least a little bit. Mohamed played as a centre-forward in this tournament and was Somalia’s main attacking outlet. He is a skilled dribbler who frequently beats opponents with quick changes of direction. His lack of physicality does mean he gets knocked off the ball fairly easily but his short stature also allows for quick changes in direction. Mohammed, despite lining up as a centre-forward, often drifted into wide spaces. His dribbling led to a fairly high number of shots inside the box when we consider how over-matched Somalia were in each of their games. Mohamed also has quite solid off-the-ball movement and pops up in dangerous areas in the penalty area. He is fairly quick but his lack of physical strength limits the effectiveness of this speed because unless he completely beats a defender for pace he is going to get pushed off the ball. Mohamed generally makes good passes in transition, finding the open man and keeping the counter-attack going. He also has pretty good deliveries from wide areas and if he had stronger teammates I think he would have picked up a couple of assists at this tournament.
Mohamed’s lack of strength is obviously a little bit of an impediment defensively. However, he did do some good defending in this tournament. He has a strong work-rate and closes the ball down enthusiastically. He also has fairly good defensive positioning which leads to a lot of interceptions.
I don’t know what the path to professional football looks like for a player from Somalia. Clicking through their current senior national team, it seems most of the players who play abroad are part of the Somali diaspora, rather than players who grew up in Somalia and moved abroad. But if Mohamed can break out of Somalia when he turns 18, I think his potential is high. To be a consistent shot producer while playing up an age group and while your team is getting dominated every game is very impressive. I could see Mohamed playing for a good club in a mid-level European league or one of the bigger clubs in Africa.
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