Papa Babacar "Baba" Diawara (born 5 January 1988) is a Senegalese professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays as a striker.

Club career

Marítimo

Born in

Dakar Dakar ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Senegal, largest city of Senegal. The Departments of Senegal, department of Dakar has a population of 1,278,469, and the population of the Dakar metropolitan area was at 4.0 mill ...

, Diawara started his career with

Senegal Premier League Ligue 1 is the top division of the Senegal Football Association, it was founded in 1960. The league also hosts a domestic cup, the Coupe de la Ligue. Football clubs from the Senegal Premier League also compete for the Senegal FA Cup. In the 2023 ...

club

ASC Jeanne d'Arc Association Sportive et Culturelle Jeanne d'Arc or ASC Jeanne d'Arc for short is a Senegalese football club based in Dakar. It was founded in 1923 and one of the oldest in the country. They play at the Stade Léopold Sédar Senghor. The club c ...

, moving to Europe aged just 19 to sign for

C.S. Marítimo Club Sport Marítimo MH M (), commonly known as Marítimo or Marítimo da Madeira, is a Portuguese professional sports club based in the city of Funchal, on the island of Madeira. Established in 1910, Marítimo is best known for its football team ...

in Portugal due to his friendship with former footballer

Paul Tisdale Paul Robert Tisdale (born 14 January 1973) is an English professional football manager and former player. He is currently Head of Football Operations at Celtic. As a player, Tisdale represented Southampton, Bristol City, FinnPa, Panionios and ...

. Having risen to prominence in their reserves, he made his debut for the main squad late into the 2007–08 season, appearing in the second half of a 1–1

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (), also known as Liga Portugal Betclic for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Portugal and the highest level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga ...

home draw against C.F. Estrela da Amadora. Promoted to the first team the following summer, Diawara scored ten goals in the 2008–09 campaign from 25 league games. His form attracted the attention of several clubs, including

Sporting CP Sporting Clube de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP or simply Sporting (particularly within Portugal), or as Sporting Lisbon in other countries,

Olympiacos F.C. Olympiacos Football Club ( ), known simply as Olympiacos or Olympiacos Piraeus, is a Greek professional Association football, football club based in Piraeus. Part of the major Sports club, multi-sport club Olympiacos CFP (''Olympiakós Sýnde ...

from

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

and Scotland's Heart of Midlothian, with the latter however being put off by Marítimo's £2.5 million (€2.75 million) valuation of the player. Diawara bettered his individual totals to 11 goals in

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

, with Marítimo finishing in ninth position.

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

came close to signing him in August 2011, but the deal collapsed on the last day of the

transfer window In association football, a transfer window is the period during the year in which a football club, club can add players to their squad who were previously under contract with another club. Such a Transfer (association football), transfer is comp ...

due to visa issues. Diawara netted ten goals in only 15 matches in the first half of the 2011–12 season, including the last-minute winner at Sporting in a 3–2 win.

Sevilla

Diawara signed with

Sevilla FC Sevilla Fútbol Club () is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Seville, Andalusia, that competes in La Liga, the Spanish football league system, top flight of Spanish football. The club was formed on 25 January ...

on 17 January 2012, penning a -year contract. He made his

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

debut on the 29th, coming on as a substitute for

José Antonio Reyes José Antonio Reyes Calderón (; 1 September 1983 – 1 June 2019) was a Spanish professional footballer who played mainly as a left winger and also as a forward. He made his debut for Sevilla aged 16 and signed for English club Arsenal in J ...

late into the first half of a 2–1 loss at

Málaga CF Málaga Club de Fútbol (, ''Málaga Football Club''), or simply Málaga, is a club based in Málaga, Andalusia, Spain, who compete in Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish football league system, Spanish league system, following the ...

. His first goal came on 3 March, starting the first time due to

Álvaro Negredo Álvaro Negredo Sánchez (; born 20 August 1985) is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a striker. Nicknamed ''La fiera de Vallecas'' (The beast of Vallecas), he amassed totals of 361 matches and 128 goals over 12 La Liga s ...

's injury and equalising in a 1–1 draw against

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), commonly referred to as Atlético Madrid or simply Atlético, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid that plays in La Liga. The club play their home game ...

at the

Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium The Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium (; ) is a association football, football stadium in Seville, Spain. It is the home stadium of Sevilla Fútbol Club, Sevilla, and is named after the club's former president, Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán (1900–195 ...

. On 17 April 2012, Diawara scored the opening goal in the new

National Stadium Many countries have a national sport stadium, which typically serves as the primary or exclusive home for one or more of a country's national representative sports teams. The term is most often used in reference to an association football ...

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

, during a friendly with local

Legia Warsaw Legia Warszawa (), commonly referred to as Legia Warsaw or simply Legia, is a professional football club based in Warsaw, Poland. Legia is the most successful Polish football club in history, winning a record 15 champions titles, a record 2 ...

, adding another in a 2–0 win. He netted twice on 5 May as Sevilla won 5–2 in their final home match of the season, against

Rayo Vallecano Rayo Vallecano de Madrid, S.A.D. (), often abbreviated to Rayo (Spanish for "thunderbolt"), is a Spanish professional football club based in the Villa de Vallecas district of Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish foot ...

. In the following campaign he did not find the net in the league, featuring mainly from the bench. In July 2013, Diawara was one of three Sevilla players deemed surplus to requirements by coach

Unai Emery Unai Emery Etxegoien (born 3 November 1971) is a Spanish Association football, football Manager (association football), manager and former player who is the manager of Premier League club Aston Villa F.C., Aston Villa. He is widely regarded as o ...

. On 19 August, he was loaned to fellow Spaniards

Levante UD Levante Unión Deportiva, S.A.D. () is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football club in Valencia, in the Valencian Community, namesake autonomous community. Founded on 6 September 1909, the club will compete in La Liga for the 2025– ...

for the duration of 2013–14.

Adelaide United

In February 2017, after one and a half seasons with former club Marítimo, Diawara joined

Adelaide United FC Adelaide United Football Club is a professional men's Association football, soccer club located in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. The club was one of the eight founding members of the A-League Men and have competed in it concurrently ...

in the Australian

A-League A-League Men, also known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional soccer league in Australia and New Zealand and the highest level of the Australian soccer league system. Established in 2004 as the A-League by the ...

. He scored three goals in only seven matches in his first season (five in all competitions), the first coming on 19 March in the 2–1 home defeat of

Brisbane Roar FC Brisbane Roar Football Club is a professional soccer club based in Brisbane, Queensland. competing in Australia's premier men's competition, A-League Men, which is the top tier Australia's football pyramid. When Queensland Lions F.C. were ...

. Diawara agreed to a new two-year deal on 11 May 2017.

Mohun Bagan

In December 2019, Diawara signed a one-year contract with India's

Mohun Bagan AC Mohun Bagan Athletic Club is an Indian professional multi-sports club based in Kolkata, West Bengal. Founded in 1889, it is one of the oldest multi-sports clubs in Asia. The club has various sports departments like association football, footb ...

. He scored his first

I-League The I-League is the men's second professional football division of the Indian football league system behind the Indian Super League. Administered by the All India Football Federation, it is currently contested by 13 clubs. It operates as a s ...

goal for his new team the following 19 January, heading home from a

corner kick A corner kick, commonly known as a corner, is the method of restarting play in a game of association football when the ball goes out of play over the goal line, without a goal being scored and having last been touched by a member of the defe ...

in the 65th minute to help the hosts defeat

East Bengal F.C. East Bengal Football Club, commonly referred to as East Bengal, is an Indian professional football club based in Kolkata, West Bengal. The club competes in the Indian Super League, the top flight of the Indian football league system. The cl ...

2–1.His goal also helped Mohun Bagan win the

I-league The I-League is the men's second professional football division of the Indian football league system behind the Indian Super League. Administered by the All India Football Federation, it is currently contested by 13 clubs. It operates as a s ...

title just before Covid lockdown in India just at the time of Holi/ Dol Jatra around March 2020, under Kibu Vicuna's coaching. Mohun Bagan was declared champions with 4 games still left to play as even the 2nd placed team would not have toppled Mohun Bagan at the top of the table even if they had won all of their remaining matches.

Punjab

Diawara joined

Punjab FC Punjab Football Club (formerly known as RoundGlass Punjab FC) is an Indian professional association football, football club founded in Mohali, Punjab. The club competes in the Indian Super League, the top flight of the Indian football league sy ...

of the same country and league on 1 February 2021. On his debut eight days later, he scored twice in a 2–1 away victory over

Indian Arrows Indian Arrows (formerly known as Pailan Arrows) is an Indian developmental football team that competes in the Indian national football tiers. They competed in the I-League. The club was formed by the All India Football Federation in 2010, wi ...

Career statistics

Honours

Mohun Bagan *

: 2019–20

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Diawara, Baba 1988 births Living people Senegalese men's footballers Footballers from Dakar Men's association football forwards ASC Jeanne d'Arc players Primeira Liga players Segunda Divisão players C.S. Marítimo players La Liga players Sevilla FC players Levante UD footballers Getafe CF footballers A-League Men players Adelaide United FC players Marquee players (A-League Men) I-League players Mohun Bagan Super Giant players Senegalese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Expatriate men's soccer players in Australia Expatriate men's footballers in India Senegalese expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Senegalese expatriate sportspeople in Spain Senegalese expatriate sportspeople in India 21st-century Senegalese sportsmen