Carayol: Mustapha Soon (Mustapha)

2016-2016 (Leeds Player Details) (Player Details)

Left Wing

Born: Banjul, Gambia: 04-09-1988

Debut: Rotherham United (h) (F.A. Cup): 09-01-2016

5' 10" 11st 11lb (2015)

Born in Banjul, Gambia, Carayol was discovered by the Swindon Town Youth Academy and much of his early career was spent under the influence of the then Swindon Town Manager, Paul Ince. Ince had so much faith in his ability that he had his traineeship transferred to Macclesfield Town when he became their Manager in October 2006. Indeed when Ince moved to MK Dons almost a year later, in June 2007, he offered him his first professional contract, of two years, in August 2007. It was not long before the Gambian had made his debut for his new club, when he started in the League Cup home tie with Sheffield United on 28th August 2007, but was substituted in the sixty-second minutes by Lloyd Dyer as the Blades triumphed 3-2. He featured in one further game for MK Dons. It was in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy, when he came on as an eighty-seventh minute substitute for Mark Wright as Peterborough United were defeated 3-1 on 9th October 2007. At the end of October 2007 he was loaned to Crawley Town, to gain further first team experience. He made his debut for the Blue Square Premiership side, playing a full game for them in a 2-3 home defeat by Torquay United on 17th November 2007. He scored his first goal in the 2-1 home win over Grays Athletic on 15th April 2008, when he opened the scoring in the forty-sixth minute and then doubled his tally in the very next fixture, when he gave Crawley a 2-1 lead in the thirty-eighth minute of a 3-1 away win at Stafford Rangers on 19th April 2008. He remained at Crawley Town, where he played under Steve Evans and Paul Rayner, until the end of the season before returning to MK Dons, after scoring two league goals in twenty-five appearances, twelve of which had been from the bench, and one game in the Conference Shield. He had played twice against Torquay United in that spell and he must have impressed, particularly in the final game when Crawley won 2-1 at Torquay, which cost the Devonshire club second spot. On 13th July 2008 Carayol was signed by the Plaimoor club on a two year contract. He made his debut, as a sixty-eighth minute substitute, in place of Danny Stevens, in a 1-1 away draw with Histon on 9th August 2008 and after two further substitute appearances he made his starting debut in a 1-3 defeat at his former club, Crawley Towm on 23rd August 2008. He quickly established himself as a regular member of the first team squad, making fourteen starts in the League, with sixteen games from the bench and two starts in the F.A. Cup and one as a substitute, as Torquay gained promotion to the Football League. He scored his first goal for Torquay with three minutes left on the clock in a 3-5 defeat at Dagenham and Redbridge, but could not be assured of a place in the starting eleven and he went on a three-month emergency loan with Blue Square Premier Conference side Kettering Town on 17th September 2009. He made his debut for his new club, again at his old club Crawley Town, in a 1-2 defeat on 19th September 2009. He was injured in his fourth appearance for Kettering and had to leave the field in the thirty-fourth minute of a 2-1 win at Hayes on 29th September 2009, with Damian Spencer as his replacement. His only other game in his loan period was as a fifty-third minute replacement for Francis Green in a 2-2 draw at Wrexham. This left his record at three starts and one game from the bench in the League. He returned to Plainmoor, but his first game was not until 6th February 2010 when he started but was replaced by Elliot Benyon at half-time in a 0-1 defeat at Hereford United. He scored a succession of goals, five more in all in the latter part of the season. There was an eighty-ninth minute equaliser in a 1-1 draw at Cheltenham on 23rd February 2010, Torquay's final goal five minutes from time in a 3-1 win at Darlington on 6th March 2010, the final goal in the seventy- seventh minute, in a 5-0 home win over Rochdale on 10th April 2010. He got the final goal in the seventy-first minute of a 3-0 away win at Grimsby Town on 17th April 2010 and the opening goal in the thirty-seventh minute of another 3-0 away win, this time at Bury on 1st May 2010. Surprisingly, Carayol turned down a new contract with Torquay at the end of the 2009-10 season. He agreed to join Lincoln City in May 2010, but the two clubs could not agree a fee. As Carayol was under twenty-four, compensation was due from Lincoln City to Torquay United. The two clubs agreed the fee of £35,000 on 17th August 2010. There was a fee and also appearance money and a sell-on clause. Carayol had got off to a good start with Lincoln, scoring on debut in a 1-2 away loss to Rotherham United on 7th August 2010, when he equalised in the fifty-second minute and he had played the full game. He had also played a full game in the 0-4 away loss, on 10th August 2010, to Leeds United in the League Cup and the 0-2 loss to Torquay at Sincil Bank on 14th August 2010, after which the negotiations between the two clubs took place and the settlement agreed. He went on to score three League goals for the Imps in thirty-three games, of which nine were from the bench. He also scored one goal in three starts in F.A. Cup ties and made one start in the League Cup. At the end of the 2010-11 season, after Lincoln had been relegated from the Football League, the club had a mass clear out of players and in May 2011, Carayol was made available for transfer. On 17th June 2011 Bristol Rovers signed him on a two-year contract for an undisclosed fee. He made his debut as a seventieth minute substitute for Joe Anyinsah in a 3-2 win at AFC Wimbledon on 6th August 2011, and made his starting debut a week later in a 1-2 loss to former team Torquay United, in which he was replaced by Wayne Brown in the seventieth minute. He soon became a regular squad member and a fans' favourite. He scored his first goal when he got Rovers' second goal in the seventy-fourth to give them the lead in a 3-1 win at home to Corby Town in the F.A. Cup, on 12th November 2011. He scored again in the tenth minute of the next round of the F.A. Cup, to give Rovers a 2-0 lead in a game that saw them win 6-1 at AFC Totton on 4th December 2011. His first League goal came in the fifty-second minute of a 1-4 defeat at Gillingham on 17th December 2011. Barnsley were said to have made a bid for his services during the January 2012 transfer window, but the bid was rejected. In May the club rejected another offer from Barnsley and one from Middlesbrough, said to be a six figure sum. In April 2012, with a year left on his contract he had talks with Bristol to extend his contract. Manager Mark McGhee realised that Carayol had been offered increased wages and the chance to play in the Championship which brought the chance to improve his skills even further. He had finished his first season at the Memorial Stadium having scored four goals in the Leaguein thirty appearances, of which six had been from the bench and had netted another two in three starts in the F.A. Cup and had started one, and had come off the bench once, without scoring in the League Cup. On 1st August 2012, Carayol signed for Middlesbrough on a three year contract for and undisclosed fee. He made his debut when he started in the 2-1 League cup win at Bury on 11th August 2012, but he was replaced at half-time by Adam Reach. He scored his first goal in his second game, a 2-0 win in the League Cup at Gillingham on 28th August 2012, when he opened the scoring in the twenty-third minute before being substituted after sixty-six minutes by Merouane Zemmama. He made his League debut as a substitute for Luke Williams in the seventieth minute of a 2-0 home win over Ipswich Town on 15th September 2012 and scored Boro's second goal in the ninetieth minute. His starting League debut came in the next game in a 1-4 defeat at Blackpool, which saw him substituted in the seventieth minute by Merouane Zemmama. He scored two further goals that season, in the fiftieth minute when he got Middlesbrough's first equaliser in a 2-3 home defeat by Barnsley on 9th February, and then scored the only goal of the game in the forty-second minute at home to Nottingham Forest on 16th April 2013. He played in eighteen League, two League Cup and one F.A. Cup games that season. 2013-14 saw Carayol in good form as he netted eight League goals in thirty-two appearances and also made one start in the League Cup, before his season was ended on 15th March 2014 in a 0-0 draw at Bournemouth when he suffered cruciate ligament damage and was stretchered off in the last two minutes of the game. The injury also saw him miss the majority of the ensuing season of 2014-15. It was not until almost the New Year before Carayol had recovered from his injury and then came a matter of match fitness before he could be included in the first team squad. He had almost an hour for the Under-Twenty-One team on 26th January 2015, sat on the bench for the first team on 24th February 2015in a 1-0 home win over Bolton Wanderers and then another game for the Under Twenty-One's on 2nd March 2015. On 26th March 2015, he signed on loan for Brighton and Hove Albion for the rest of the season to regain match-fitness. He sat unused on the bench on 3rd March 2015 as Brighton went down 0-1 at home to Norwich City. He made his debut on 6th April 2015 in a 0-1 loss at Rotherham United in which he played eighty-one minutes before being replaced by Joao Teixeira. On 10th April he played seventy-four minutes before being replaced by Kazenga Lua Lua in a 0-2 home loss to AFC Bournemouth. Four days later there was another fifty-nine minutes in a 0-0 home draw with Huddersfield Town, before he was replaced by Kazenga Lua Lua. He started on the bench on 18th April 2015 in a 1-2 defeat at Wigan Athletic and replaced Danny Holla with just four minutes left on the clock. He made his record four starts and one game from the bench in the League when he started in the 0-2 home defeat by Watford and played sixty minutes before he was replaced by Craig Mackail-Smith. He also sat on the bench on 2nd May 2015 before returning to Middlesbrough where he signed a contract extension for two years. On 27th August 2015 he went on a season-long loan to Huddersfield Town, where he made his debut as a an eightieth minute substitute for Nahki Wells in a 0-1 home defeat by Queens Park Rangers on 29th August 2015. He was a seventy-second minute substitute in a 0-2 defeat at Cardiff City on 12th September 2015 before starting in the 2-1 win over Charlton Athletic at the Valley, where he played seventy-eight minutes before being replaced by Kyle Dempsey. He scored his first League goal for Town, when he gave them a 2-1 lead in the fifty-first minute of a home win over Bolton Wanderers on 19th September 2015, which they ended up winning 4-1 as Carayol was replaced by Jamie Paterson after eighty-two minutes. He went on to add two further goals, the opening goal in the thirty-first minute of a 2-0 home win over Rotherham United on 15th December 2015 and the second goal, with three minutes left on the clock in a 2-0 away win at Bolton Wanderers on 2nd January 2016 after replacing Harry Bunn two minutes prior in his final game for Huddersfield, who had decided that he was surplus to requirements and cut his loan short. He had scored three League goals in nine starts and six games from the bench during his loan. He was soon snapped up on loan by Leeds United on 8th January 2016 for the rest of the season. He was off to a flying start scoring on debut with Leeds's opening goal, just on half-time, of the 2-0 home win over Rotherham United in the F.A. Cup on 9th January 2015. He scored his second goal with an eighty-fourth minute equaliser at Brentford in a 1-1 draw at Griffin Park, after coming on as a seventy-seventh minute replacement for Stuart Dallas. He went on to score once in six starts and six games from the bench in the League and one goal in one start and one substitute appearance in the F.A. Cup before returning to the Riverside at the end of the season. On the International front, he has scored once in three appearances for Gambia. He made his debut at the Nelson Mandela National Stadium Namboole on 9th June 2015 in a 1-1 draw with Uganda and added two more while at Leeds. On 25th March 2016 he played the full game in a 2-1 defeat by Mauritania in the African Nations Cup at the Stade Olympique, Nouackchott, and scored his first international goal after seventy minutes. He also played a full game four days later in the 0-0 home draw in the same competition with Mauritania at the Independence Stadium, Bakau. At the end of the season he returned to Middlesbrough and on 30th August 2016 he was given a free transfer to Nottingham Forest and signed a two year contract.