Samba Diakité (born 24 January 1989) is a French-born Malian 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 ...

who plays as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for Kuwaiti club

Al Tadhamon SC Al Tadhamon SC, or Al Tadamon is a Kuwaiti professional football club based in Al Farwaniya. Honours *Kuwaiti Division One The Kuwaiti Division One is a second-tier professional Kuwaiti football league. Winners of the league are promoted ...

. Between 2012 and 2013 he made nine appearances for the Mali national team.

Club career

Early career

Diakité played for Le Bourget and Torcy, before joining

Nancy Nancy may refer to: Places France * Nancy, France, a city in the northeastern French department of Meurthe-et-Moselle and formerly the capital of the duchy of Lorraine ** Arrondissement of Nancy, surrounding and including the city of Nancy ...

in 2007.

Nancy

On 27 December 2009, he signed his first professional contract after agreeing to a two-year deal with Nancy. He made his professional debut on 27 January 2010 in a

Coupe de France The Coupe de France, formerly known as the Coupe Charles Simon, is the premier knockout cup competition in French football organized by the French Football Federation (FFF). It was first held in 1917 and is open to all amateur and professio ...

match against

Plabennec Plabennec (; ) is a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany in north-western France. History The area around Plabennec has been occupied since Neolithic times and into the Bronze Age. The commune of Plabennec was formed around the 6th c ...

Queens Park Rangers (loan)

On 29 January 2012, he agreed a deal to join

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

team Queens Park Rangers on loan for the remainder of the season with a view to a permanent switch in the summer of 2012. He made his debut on 25 February 2012 in a 1–0 defeat, at home against

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandswo ...

, where he was sent-off after just 33 minutes for a second bookable offence. Diakité scored his first goal, a winning goal, for Queens Park Rangers in a 2–1 victory over London rivals

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

on 31 March 2012.

Queens Park Rangers

On 27 June 2012, it was announced by Queens Park Rangers that they had completed the permanent signing of Diakité on a four-year deal for an undisclosed fee believed to be £3.5 million. Up until his loan move to

Watford Watford () is a town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne, Hertfordshire, River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal en ...

, he made 14 appearances for the ''R's'' that season.

Watford (loan)

On 31 January 2014, Diakité joined Watford on loan for the remainder of the 2013–14 season. Diakité made his Watford debut as an 88th-minute substitute for

Cristian Battocchio Cristian Damián Battocchio (; born 10 February 1992) is a professional footballer who plays as a midfielder. Born in Argentina, he has represented Italy internationally at youth levels U20 and U21. Club career Udinese Born in Rosario, Argentin ...

in the 2-0 win over Brighton on 2 February 2014. However, on his full debut against

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

on 15 February 2014, Diakité was shown a straight red card early in the second half for a two-footed lunge on

Dean Whitehead Dean Whitehead (born 12 January 1982) is an English former professional footballer and coach. A midfielder who occasionally played at right-back, he made 622 league and cup appearances in a 19-year playing career, scoring 29 goals. Whitehead j ...

Ittihad (loan)

On 19 July 2014, Diakité joined

Ittihad The Ittihad Party ( az, İttihad firqəsi) was a radical Islamist party in the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic in 1917–1920. It was formed in September 1917 in opposition to the secular Musavat Party and proposed political unity of all the Mus ...

on a season long loan. He was recalled by Queens Park Rangers at the end of the January transfer window, having made seven appearances and scoring one goal during his time at the Saudi Arabian club.

Al Tadhamon

In 2020, Diakité joined Kuwaiti club

International career

On 24 January 2012, he made his senior international debut for

Mali Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Ma ...

at the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations, in the 1–0 victory against Guinea. In total, he has made nineteen appearances for his country, scoring four goals. His form for his country in the tournament helped them reach the semi-finals, and helped earn him a move to Queens Park Rangers.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Mali *

Africa Cup of Nations The Africa Cup of Nations referred to as AFCON (french: Coupe d'Afrique des Nations, sometimes referred to as CAN, or TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons), and sometimes as African Cup of Nations, is the main internati ...

bronze:

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment ...

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Diakite, Samba 1989 births Living people People from Montfermeil Footballers from Seine-Saint-Denis French footballers French sportspeople of Malian descent Citizens of Mali through descent Malian footballers Association football midfielders Mali international footballers 2012 Africa Cup of Nations players 2013 Africa Cup of Nations players AS Nancy Lorraine players Queens Park Rangers F.C. players Watford F.C. players Ittihad FC players Red Star F.C. players Al Tadhamon SC players Premier League players English Football League players Saudi Professional League players Kuwait Premier League players Ligue 1 players Ligue 2 players Championnat National players Malian expatriate footballers Malian expatriate sportspeople in France Expatriate footballers in France Malian expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate footballers in England Malian expatriate sportspeople in Saudi Arabia Expatriate footballers in Saudi Arabia Malian expatriate sportspeople in Kuwait Expatriate footballers in Kuwait