Saturday’s stalemate at Bournemouth was not an easy day for Willy Kambwala.
Less than a week after a dominant display in only his second senior start for Manchester United, against arch-rivals Liverpool, the 19-year-old defender was reminded of the realities of competing in elite, top-flight football.
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Targeted and isolated by Dominic Solanke, a slip and stumble allowed the Bournemouth striker to score the game’s first goal. Then, not long after United drew level, a miscommunication between Kambwala and Diogo Dalot created a gap for Justin Kluivert to exploit and restore Bournemouth’s lead.
Yet it was also Kambwala’s full-blooded 50-50 against Solanke that set the visitors up to score the first of their equalisers in the 2-2 draw, and United’s unrelenting injury problems are likely to give the teenager more opportunities to put things right over the final six weeks of the season.
After all, his Old Trafford career so far is a story of recovering from setbacks.
A boyhood United fan, he joined them shortly before the close of the extended summer transfer window in October 2020 as one of six under-18s signed from overseas before the shutters came down due to Brexit regulations.
Just 16 years old at the time, Kambwala signed his contract at Manchester’s Hotel Football on the day Tottenham Hotspur ran out 6-1 winners at the adjacent Old Trafford.
Despite being the youngest of those six overseas teenagers, he was the most expensive. United agreed a final package of up to €4million (£3.4m; $4.3m at current exchange rates) for him with French club Sochaux and, in a break from protocol with academy players, announced Kambwala’s signing with an image of him posing in a United shirt.
Kambwala had been brought to their attention by Mathieu Seckinger, an academy scout based in France who also identified Hannibal Mejbri, who was signed the previous summer from Monaco’s academy.
Despite being born in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo in central Africa, Kambwala is another product of the Paris banlieues — arguably the hottest of hotbeds in world football — and specifically Les Ulis, a suburb to the south-west of the city, with his family having moved to France when he was five years old.
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If you already know that name, it is probably because of Club Omnisports Les Ulis, the local team that launched the careers of Thierry Henry, Anthony Martial and Patrice Evra. One of Kambwala’s representatives, Tshimen Buhanga, is a coach at Les Ulis and a close friend of Evra’s, and the former United left-back is a regular source of guidance and advice.
After completing his mandatory two-week self-isolation period under the pandemic regulations in place at the time, Kambwala debuted for the under-18s in a 4-0 win over their Derby County counterparts that showed why United had sanctioned that €4million fee, dominating defensively while playing two years up.
That was the only glimpse of those abilities for a while, though. In his next appearance, a friendly against neighbours Salford City, Kambwala suffered an ankle injury serious enough to require surgery and sideline him for the best part of a year.
Kambwala slowly worked his way back to fitness as best as he could while coping with the challenges any teenager would face living in a country they barely know at a time of Covid-19 lockdowns.
After an 11-month lay-off, he eventually returned in an 8-2 cup win against Birmingham City in September 2021.
Yet even then, a tricky recovery period beset with minor pains and niggles prevented him from a consistent run of appearances and meant his contribution to that season’s successful FA Youth Cup campaign was being an unused substitute twice, although he still celebrated wildly in his club suit during the trophy presentation at Old Trafford after a 3-1 win over Nottingham Forest.
Kambwala has therefore played relatively little academy football for a prospect United signed three and a half years ago, with the majority of his appearances at the under-18 and under-21 levels coming over the past two seasons.
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Yet that has only made the France Under-17 international determined to make up for lost time. Kambwala, who still lives in club digs, is known for clocking in early at United’s Carrington base before training to get through additional injury prevention work — often two and a half hours before the rest of the squad are due to arrive.
He has always been a warm and friendly presence around Carrington, making an effort to say hello to staff in the mornings and engaging in conversations rather than sitting engrossed in his phone while waiting for a taxi to pick him up from reception.
Even so, before this season, Kambwala had typically been one of the quieter players in the academy dressing room.
Now, he is more vocal, more confident, and showing more personality every day — something that was on display in that game against Liverpool when, after chasing back to make a last-ditch recovery tackle on Darwin Nunez, he turned to the Stretford End and urged the fans to raise the volume.
A relentlessly positive attitude has helped carry him through the more challenging spells and made him a popular member of the squad.
Kambwala is especially close with goalkeeper Andre Onana, who has offered the teenager advice and mentorship since his breakthrough into the first-team setup — United’s official X account shared an image of Onana putting Kambwala in a playful headlock last Thursday.
Religion was a great comfort to Kambwala during that long spell recovering from injury and remains a major part of his life.
He is a devout Christian, attends church regularly and counts a copy of the Bible as one of his most prized possessions. It is also an integral part of his pre-match routine.
Kambwala often takes a moment of quiet reflection in the dressing room before games, either reading the Bible or praying, to help him focus and find inner peace. That especially helped at the London Stadium just before Christmas last year as he prepared to make his senior debut in what turned out to be a 2-0 defeat against West Ham United.
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He turns to his faith “every single moment where I feel in my heart I need it”, he told MUTV earlier this year. “Praying before the game, reading the Bible before the game, praying after the game, saying thank you for every single moment, whether I’m playing or not playing. Just saying thank you for the opportunity.”
United’s defensive injury crisis has handed Kambwala a chance to impress.
Manager Erik ten Hag had other options to deal with the spate of absences in his back line, such as dropping midfielder Casemiro deeper, but has trusted that Kambwala can cope with the exposure.
Kambwala will enter the final year of his contract this summer and there is no one-year extension for the club to trigger automatically. Although talks are not currently underway, they are expected to start soon. United have no plans to lose him on a free.
And Kambwala has no place he would rather be.
In April 2018, he visited Old Trafford with a group of his Les Ulis team-mates at the invitation of Martial and watched the 1-0 loss to relegation-bound West Bromwich Albion, which confirmed Manchester City as that season’s champions.
“It drove me crazy to see them playing on my field without being able to act,” Kambwala told French newspaper Le Parisien earlier this year.
He is now finally out on his field, thrust into this opportunity by circumstances beyond his control.
The coming weeks will tell whether this talented young defender takes it.
GO DEEPER
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(Top photo: Nathan Stirk/Getty Images)
