Lamine Mandela Keita (born 10 May 2002) is a Belgian 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

defensive midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

for Italian club

Parma Parma (; ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmesan, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,986 inhabitants as of 2025, ...

and the Belgium national team. Born in Belgium, Keita is of Guinean descent.

Club career

Keita debuted for OH Leuven on 21 March 2021 in the away match against

Mechelen Mechelen (; ; historically known as ''Mechlin'' in EnglishMechelen has been known in English as ''Mechlin'', from where the adjective ''Mechlinian'' is derived. This name may still be used, especially in a traditional or historical context. T ...

. Due to injury and lengthy recovery, Keita spent most of the first half of the 2022–23 season on the bench. During the winter 2022–23 transfer window, Keita was loaned to

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

to get more playing time, with a 10 million Euro buy clause. At Antwerp, Keita played regularly and scored his first professional league goal as Antwerp became league champions for the first time in 66 years. Keita was selected as part of the Belgium U21 squad for the

2023 UEFA European Under-21 Championship The 2023 UEFA European Under-21 Championship (also known as UEFA Under-21 Euro 2023) was the 24th edition of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship (27th edition if the Under-23 era is also included), the biennial international youth Association f ...

. He returned to OHL in the summer of 2023, where he had a contract until 2025. Antwerp wanted to continue with Keita and after months of negotiations, and after Keita began appearing in the OH Leuven shirt, he was loaned again to Antwerp on 10 August 2023 for a full season, again with an estimated 7-8 million Euro buy clause. On 30 August 2024, Keita moved to

in Italy.

International career

He represented

Guinea Guinea, officially the Republic of Guinea, is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Guinea-Bissau to the northwest, Senegal to the north, Mali to the northeast, Côte d'Ivoire to the southeast, and Sier ...

at youth international level, having played for the Belgium U21s. In October 2023, he received his first call-up to the Belgium senior national team for the

UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying The UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying tournament was a football competition that was played from March 2023 to March 2024 to determine the 23 UEFA member men's national teams that would join the automatically qualified host team Germany in the UEFA Eur ...

matches against

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

and

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

Honours

Royal Antwerp *

Belgian Pro League The Belgian Pro League (; ; ), officially the Jupiler Pro League () for sponsor Jupiler, is a professional association football league in Belgium and the highest level of the Belgian football league system. Contested by 16 clubs from the 2023 ...

: 2022–23 *

Belgian Cup The Belgian Cup (; ; ) is the main knockout football competition in Belgium, run by the Royal Belgian FA. The competition started in 1908 with provincial selections as the "Belgian Provinces Cup". Starting from 1912 only actual clubs were allowed ...

: 2022–23

References

External links

* 2002 births Living people Belgian people of Guinean descent Footballers from Leuven Belgian men's footballers Belgium men's under-21 international footballers Belgium men's international footballers Men's association football midfielders Oud-Heverlee Leuven players Royal Antwerp F.C. players Parma Calcio 1913 players Belgian Pro League players Serie A players Belgian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Belgian expatriate sportspeople in Italy 21st-century Belgian sportsmen {{Belgium-footy-defender-stub