17 fun facts about Eduardo Camavinga

Born in Angola to Congolese parents Sofia and Celestino, Eduardo and his family emigrated to France when he was just two years old, as refugees.

His parents took residence in the suburbs of Rennes, where they built a place to live with the help of their neighbours and friends.

When Eduardo was a little boy, the Camavingas' home was destroyed by fire, and they lost everything. This tragedy only fueled Eduardo's will to succeed. Although judo was his first love as a child, football swiftly overtook it, and becoming a professional was always his goal.

"We had been at that house, which my parents had built, for a less than a year," the former Rennes prodigy said in an interview with Ouest France.

"I remember the fire as if it were yesterday. I was at school and saw the firefighters passing out of the window.

"At the end of the class the teachers came to me and my little sister and explained what had happened.

"My dad came to get us and took us there. Everything was burned, everything was destroyed."

Camavinga's father, however, believed in his son and his words paved the way for a successful future.

"Don't worry, you're going to be a great footballer and will rebuild this house," the player's father said.

"It's true that he told me that," Camavinga said.

"I was the family's hope. Suddenly, I was motivated. My parents were already happy, but I knew I could make them even happier."

On July 7, 2020, Camavinga obtained his Baccalaureate in ES (Economic and Social Sciences) without mention.

Due to the coronavirus, the classes were ceased, which led to Camavinga being unable to appear for the examinations. Thus, the National Education decided to award him his baccalaureate on the basis of continuous monitoring.

When Camavinga made his debut for Rennes in a Ligue 1 match against Angers on April 6, 2019, he became the youngest ever player to play for the Rennes first team, aged 16 years, four months, and 27 days.

However, this record was later broken by Mathys Tel (who now plays for Bayern Munich), who made his debut for Rennes against Brest in a 1-1 draw on August 15, 2021, aged 16 years and 110 days.

Signed by Real Madrid on deadline day in the summer transfer window of 2021, Camavinga made his debut for Los Blancos in a La Liga encounter against Celta Vigo on September 12, 2021, coming off the bench to score a goal.

He would make his Champions League debut with the 'Kings of Europe' three days later against Inter Milan, providing an assist for Rodrygo's goal, the only goal in the game.

Paul Pogba's suspension for a positive Covid-19 test on August 27, 2020 led to Camavinga being called up to play for France's senior team.

In the process, he broke the record for the youngest player called up to the French senior team since Rene Gerard, who was only 17 years, 9 months, and 17 days old in 1932.

He made his international debut on September 8 in a 4-2 victory over Croatia in the UEFA Nations League, coming on to replace N'Golo Kante midway through the second half.

As a result, at the age of 17 years, 9 months, and 29 days, he became the youngest player to represent France's national team since Maurice Gastiger in 1914.

Camavinga was handed his first start for France on October 7, 2020, against Ukraine, and scored his first goal for his country with an overhead kick to open the scoring.

He now holds the record for being France's youngest goal scorer since Maurice Gastiger in 1914.

At the age of 18, Eduardo Camavinga got a stadium named in his honour. He was raised close to La Chapelle-Janson, where the stadium stands, in the town of Fougeres.

Its name is Stade Intercommunal Eduardo Camavinga. At the new stadium is the CF2L, an academy that brings talented athletes from the neighbourhood together for training and competition.

Defensively, Camavinga is exceptional. Because of his superb tackling, he had earned the moniker 'Tacklevinga' among his regular Ligue 1 opponents.

"Before this season I had never played as a number six but I've learned to appreciate the position," Camavinga stated in an interview with AS in 2020.

"I like to play as a number eight as well, as a box-to-box midfielder, to have space. I also love a sliding tackle. I don't know where it came from, there was a time when I didn't like defending, but now I love going in on the feet of an opponent to win the ball.

"I prefer that to interceptions. It's much more fun to watch. I love sliding tackles, it's instinctive."

In order to improve his technical skill-set, Camavinga has adopted a unique training exercise.

"I think I could do better in terms of taking in information," he admitted in an interview with RMC.

"Then, I work a lot with lights. I stand in the center and the lights change direction. This allows me to always take in information. So as soon as there is a light, I go towards that light or make a pass towards that light, so I can always turn my head.

"That's why I can turn my neck all the time. It allows me to turn my head to take the information. It's constant because the position of the player changes every second, so you have to keep moving your head."

For his exquisite performances in August 2019, with the highlight being his incredible performance in a 2-1 win against PSG, where he assisted one goal, had 17 successful duels, and a pass completion rate of 97.6%, Camavinga was awared the UNFP Ligue 1 Player of the Month award.

In the process, he became the youngest player in French top-flight history to win the award, at the age of 16 years, nine months, and eight days.

"Benzema is an idol for everyone in France, he is brilliant dealing with the younger players. We've seen that with Vinicius. He helps me, because he's French. I only speak a little Spanish (laughs)," Camavinga revealed in an interview with AS in 2021.

The youngster also swapped shirts with Cristiano Ronaldo after their 0-0 draw in the UEFA Nations League in 2020. He posted a photo of Cristiano's jersey on his social media with the caption, "Je le lave pas (I won't wash it)."

Camavinga has also revealed that French midfielder Steven N'Zonzi, who was his midfield partner at Rennes, was someone he looked up to.

What's more, Camavinga drew comparisons with fellow France teammate Paul Pogba when he broke out at Rennes.

"I'm inspired by Paul Pogba," Camavinga said.

"He's a very good player with great qualities. He proved it in the French team, just look what he did: world champion. But I don't really like comparisons."

In an interview with Ouest France in 2020, Camavinga revealed his three favourite songs at the time.

Outro by Ninho, Rockstar of DaBaBy and recently, I discovered Bai, the remix of Lisandro and Soraia Ramos. It's a Portuguese song, it's incredible! It puts me in a good mood this little sound, it's a little soft music. When I go running, I always have my Ipad. It goes faster with music," Camavinga revealed.

In the same interview with Ouest France, Camavinga was also asked about his favourite dish.

"It is an African dish, Madesu rice," Camavinga said.

"It's rice with white beans and an orange sauce. With chicken. My mother cooks, it's amazing. She is too good a cook, it's crazy!

"Besides, I'm not too fond of cakes, waffles and all that, and I only eat my mother's waffles. I got into the kitchen a bit this year, with colleagues from Stade Rennais.

"There was Adri (Adrien Hunou), Bourige (Benjamin Bourigeaud), Jordi (Jordan Siebatcheu), Thomas (Thomas Choinard, performance manager), Damien (Da Silva).

"I did the cooking and afterwards, I had my parents taste the dish afterwards, they really didn't like it too much (laughs). I had put my best will, but this dish, I had not succeeded too well."

When asked about his favourite TV show, the Frenchman responded by saying that he spent the majority of his time during the pandemic by binge-watching Money Heist, the famous show on Netflix.

"Money Heist. I had seen the first two seasons of Money Heist and during the lockdown, I took the opportunity to see seasons three and four, which came out at the start of the lockdown."

Camavinga loves to play PlayStation during his free time. He grew up playing games from the acclaimed Grand Theft Auto (GTA) franchise, but he now plays FIFA with his friends.

"I like playing games. FIFA, I play online with my friends," Camavinga conceded.

He was also asked if he liked to play with his own player in the game. He responded by saying, "I took myself at the start, I made a career, I had to test myself (laughs). But when I play with me, it's never a good sign, I only make passes with me (laughs)."

Camavinga was asked what his favourite outing was, to which he responded by saying that he likes to go to the cinema.

"I like the cinema, I go there sometimes," Camavinga said.