When Tariq Lamptey was still a pupil at Queensmead School in Ruislip, out on the far borders of north-west London, his teachers had him down as a sprinter. “When you are at school you do a lot of athletics competitions, they put me forward for quite a few because I was fast,” he says. “[That was] the first real indication that I was quite quick.”
It only takes a few minutes watching Lamptey to realise that “quite quick” is an understatement. The instant acceleration as he runs, the speed at which he’s broken into the first team at Brighton, his rapid rate of development over the last few months: Lamptey does everything at a lightning pace. He may have stood out on the running track but he had another calling and, as it turns out, athletics’ loss is football’s gain. “It was always going to be football really, I loved football,” he says. “I always used to watch Soccer Saturday when I was young and I used to love watching games and going to games.”
Set to turn 20 at the end of the month, Lamptey is still young by most people’s standards. Since he made his Brighton debut in June, five months after making the switch from Chelsea, his accomplished performances have belied his age. Lamptey was the standout player as Brighton dismantled Newcastle at St James’ Park last weekend, winning an early penalty and helping to set up the second goal in a 3-0 win. The sight of him scampering forwards from right wing-back has preceded most of Brighton’s Premier League goals this season, given that he also provided the assist for Leandro Trossard’s long-range strike against Chelsea at the Amex.
Lamptey only made his professional debut last December, coming on as a second-half substitute for Chelsea against Arsenal and helping to turn a one-goal deficit into a 2-1 win. It came as a surprise when he opted to join Brighton in January, leaving the club he had represented since the age of seven despite the fact that Frank Lampard seemed open to giving him first-team opportunities.
With Reece James and Cesar Azpilicueta ahead of him at right-back, however, Lamptey saw that a starting spot was a long way off. “Obviously it was a really tough decision to leave,” he says. “I had been there from a really young age so it was not an easy decision to make, but you get to a point where you look at what the best thing is for your career and you speak to your family members and the people around you who help you.”
While he comes across as quiet and polite, Lamptey clearly has a fierce inner drive. “To be fair, me as a person, I am a really ambitious boy,” he admits. “I’m not one to sit back and rest on my laurels. I want to keep going and keep driving forward so I felt it was the right time for me to make the move and come to a club like Brighton, which hopefully can give me the opportunity to develop into the player I know I can be.”
Looking back on his early days in football, Lamptey credits his dad, Ahmed, and his mum, Theresa, with laying the foundations of his career. “They sacrificed a lot for me when I was younger just to be able to take me to training and games,” he says. “There was no pressure on me of ‘You must play football’ or anything like that. It was always: ‘Do you enjoy it?’ ‘Do you still like it?’ ‘If you want to go there, we’ll take you.’
“It’s not easy as a parent, especially when you’re working and trying to provide for your family, to also take your kid up to Manchester or Birmingham. It’s a hard job. I have two younger brothers as well, so it wasn’t an easy time. The little things like my mum picking me up from school, having food in the car and heading straight off to training because the traffic was so bad on the M25… or my dad training me [in the] early mornings before school. There are so many things that I’m grateful for and [I’m] thankful for them to be in this position.”
Lamptey is also full of praise for Chelsea coaches Jody Morris and Joe Edwards, both of whom were formative influences during his time in the academy. “They always got the best of me on the training pitch and always pushed me to be the best I could be, on the pitch and off the pitch, and to work as hard as possible,” he says. “That’s what you need… I’m grateful for having them as coaches.”
Now, he works closely with former Brighton right-back Bruno Saltor who, as a member of Graham Potter’s backroom staff, has been tasked with giving him specialist guidance. “Bruno is a fantastic person to learn off,” he says. “I’m almost like a sponge with him. He has so much experience of playing at the top level of the game. I’m always trying to talk to him, we have a good relationship. I’m always asking what I could have improved on, how he feels about this and how he feels about that.”
Brighton take on Manchester United this weekend and Lamptey sees it as an even contest. In another sign of his quiet confidence, he states matter-of-factly that he doesn’t find big games particularly daunting. “You have to respect who you’re playing against, this level is a really high level and there are some fantastic players, but you can’t get caught up in that,” he says. “Ultimately, your ability has got you here, so you have to try to be as positive as you can, keep working hard [and] keep improving your game to be ready for these challenges.
“I’m not someone that’s going to be fazed by anything. I’m fearless, [but] I always want to try to work hard.”
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