Mohamed Buya Turay

Early career

Born in Freetown, Sierra Leone, Turay began playing football on the streets, which led him to be scouted by FC Mattia, who signed him. According to Turay, he said: "one of the club's coaches gave him bus money so he could go to training. But I ran to training instead. I was small and needed to train to get stronger. I took the money and bought food for the family." His performance attracted by Academie Sante Marie De Dixinn (an academy based in Guinea), who scouted and offered him a contract, but FC Mattia refused. Turay, once again, was scouted by Academy Director Numukeh Tunkara, who then took him to Sweden for a trial. Initially, his trial at Vasalund wasn't a positive one, as the club's management felt he wasn't good enough. As a result, Turay travelled to Nigeria to have another trial. But Patrick Mörk, an agent, was aware of his talent and contacted Juventus IF to sign him, leading an extension of his tourist visa, so he can play in Sweden. When Turay first arrived in Sweden, he struggled in the country with no food to eat and had to rely from his agent to drive him anywhere he went. Despite this, Turay quickly made an impact in the club, scoring twenty goals in eleven matches at the end of the 2013 season. This resulted in him seeing interest from clubs such as Standard Liège, Gefle IF and Assyriska. The 2014 season saw Turay continuing to make an impact, making fourteen appearances and scoring twelve times. Throughout his time at Juventus IF, he…

In June 2017, Turay was called-up in the Sierra Leone for the first time in a match against Kenya but did not play. A year later, he was called-up in the national team again. Turay made his Sierra Leone debut, starting a match and played 61 minutes before being substituted, in a 1–0 loss against Ethiopia on 9 September 2018. In August 2019, Turay was called-up in the national team for the first time in almost over a year. He played in both legs of the World Cup qualifying round against Liberia, as Sierra Leone lost 3–2 on aggregate. The following year, Turay played in both matches against Nigeria, as the national team went on to drew 2–2 in the African Cup of Nations Qualifications.

As of match played 10 March 2024

Growing up, Buya is the youngest child in his family and has two siblings. He grew up with a single mother, as his father moved up north to work in the diamond mines. Because his mother worked at school as a teacher, she, however, did not allow Buya play football, preferring her children to focus on education instead. Because his mother did not want him to play football, he received football shoes from his friends to go to training and did this without his mother knowledge. While at school, Turay participated in athletics competitions, running both long and short distances. He then completed his education at elementary school and was about to study high school in the next semester. However, Turay did not want to study, preferring to pursue his dream as a professional footballer. Once his mother found out about his dream as a professional footballer, this led the pair to fall out, resulting in him moving out and lived in a city streets. As a result of falling out, he and his mother did not speak for two months. In April 2018, Turay announced that he was going to be a father for the first time, with his baby daughter was born in July. During his time at Djurgårdens IF, teammate Edward Chilufya consider Turay to be his best friend and a brother to him, having taken care of him since they first met. According to his agent, he said that Turay considered Sweden to be his home. Turay is a Christian and pray on a daily basis. In November 2019, Turay suffered from an injury which he…