The name Causso Darame won’t mean a lot to many folk, even Swansea City fans. He featured in the Swans set up at U18 level and was in the same team on numerous occasions with Ben Cabango, Ollie Cooper and Liam Cullen no less.
However, this story is one of ill informed decision making and a lack of purpose when things really needed clarity, especially in this particular young man’s life.
Causso Darame, a Portuguese born footballer joined the Swans after a trial when living in Cardiff. He had moved to Wales with his mother and siblings. Darame : "The first few months were the hardest. I told my family I wanted to go back home to Portugal. But my ambition to play football kept driving me on - all I cared about was finding a new club to play for” At the age of twelve he was scouted by the Swans in Cardiff and offered a trial. It went very well. So much so he was given an academy scholarship.
Very happy days.
He impressed at Swansea City, progressing through the age grades,described as having searing pace and a technical skill that many players of that age could only dream about. In his own words when a scholar, Darame states, "Because I have younger brothers and sisters that need looking after, my mum could not make the journey to drop me off and pick me up from Swansea. When I first started, I would get the train from Cardiff and then cycle to Landore. At times, it was all on me to make sure I made it to training, but that has helped me grow up and mature much faster. I remember that I was late for my first training session because I got lost. When I arrived I had to explain that I had just walked for about an hour because I didn't know where the academy was. The coaches were impressed with the commitment I had made to come on my own, but travel is no longer a problem for me because I am part of the Cwmtawe-Academy school link-up, so I get the bus after class”
The world was at his feet.
The Swans were now a Premier League side, and progression was extremely difficult due to the multi million pound players not only in the first team but also in the U21 set up. Many fell by the wayside but resurfaced at numerous other clubs in time. Darame though was flying. Scoring goals in the U18 side as he had throughout his academy and life couldn’t be any better. However, we have to go back to the time when he first signed for the Swans when he said, "In Portugal I would get into trouble because my mum was always looking for me, and I would always be out with friends playing football from the morning until the night” That feral make up in his character would come back to haunt him.
At Swansea he only knew success, big back slaps and encouragement. He progressed, and by 2018 he was in the U21 then the U23 set up. At the time he said, "I am excited for what the campaign holds. I can’t wait to play and continue my development. Training with the U23s is much harder - everything is a faster pace and higher tempo, but it helps you raise your game. My aim in the first few months will be to get as many minutes as possible. There is plenty of competition in the squad so it will be a good challenge. I want to follow in the footsteps of players like Joe Rodon, Aaron Lewis and Daniel James and get a regular place in the team and do my best on the pitch”
He was then still only eighteen.
He also played for the U19 side scoring twice in an exceptional performance against Garden Village in the FAW Youth Cup. The Swans would go on to win that competition, and again Darame was alongside, Cullen, Cabango, Ollie Cooper and one Steven Benda as the young Swans beat Cardiff City on penalties in the final. A Cardiff side that included Mark Harris, now at Oxford United and one Ben Margetson.
Darame was on the cusp.
His season with the Swans U23 was a success, now Darame was playing alongside Dan James and George Byers as well as the aforementioned players. Darame played against the very best players in the country at age grade level at that time. Name a Premier League team he played against them.
And then it all went wrong.
First in May 2018 Darame was released by the Swans. He was absolutely devastated. This was in the lead up to the first indications of shocking mismanagement by majority owners Steve Kaplan and Jason Levien. Even club captain Leroy Fer called them personally. He confronted the reasoning for their total lack of understanding about running a football club. He was brushed away like an annoying fly.
⚽️ Stuart James wrote in the Guardian, "The strategy since relegation has been cuts, cuts and more cuts. Or, to borrow the Americans’ phrase, "hard medicine”. Sixteen senior players have left and only five have arrived. When the summer transfer window closed, Potter was left with one senior central defender after two were sold on deadline day. Backed into a corner, Potter has relied on youngsters to such an extent that Swansea, who spent seven seasons in the top flight and were relegated from the Premier League nine months ago, are fielding a team in the Championship that, in terms of the age of their players, resembles that of a club operating on a shoestring in League Two”
Sound familiar ?
Darame, now without a club, and you can easily point to the American mismanagement at the time as much as the cost cutting, but also the players character and commitment too. His words back when he joined the Swans somewhat prophetic. He couldn’t make the grade at Swansea for a number of reasons, the club was about to be relegated, his desire and tenacity to succeed was gone and he became a lost soul looking for a new club. Whatever his own personal contribution was to this mess, he was no longer a Swansea City player. He went back to Portugal but couldn’t settle at SF Damaiense. Then he headed to Germany, but it was the same story.
So, back to his family in Llanrumney, Cardiff was his only route. There he couldn’t find work, and his life of gangster rap, and the lifestyle it courts consumed him. He found himself turning to drugs, initially he had a conditional discharge for possession of cannabis. He was often seen riding his bike around numerous Cardiff suburbs, we did try and find him for an interview at that time. He was intriguing and we wanted to check out some of the details we had about his leaving of Swansea City. In the end it became a non story with the exploits of the Swans ownership becoming more newsworthy. Sacking managers on the brink of some form of success and falling out with employees across the board was affecting the club drastically, and financially.
He now had a partner and a young child. But then it really did go wrong. Last year Darame found himself in crown court in Newport. The charge was possession of drugs with intent to supply. This after a police investigation following his arrest at a drug deal in an Adamstown children's park, Cardiff. He was seen by police in what was clearly a drug deal. Darame ran from the scene but was captured hiding underneath a car close-by. He was found with drugs in his possession having discarded them when he made his escape. His arrest and house search revealed he was dealing heroin and cocaine. Records submitted to the court determined a twenty eight month sentence. From a potential Premier League star to serving time at his majesty’s pleasure. His fall from grace started around the age of twenty two, and it took just two years for his lifestyle and behaviour to catch up with him.
Darame, who was also on remand before sentencing is still serving out his sentence.
A complete waste of a young man’s life.