Keita: Mali’s best export to Europe

Glittering. Keita played alongside Messi at Barca where he won every club trophy there was to compete for PHOTO/AGENCIES

What you need to know:


  • Won three La Liga titles between 2009 and 2011, two Copa del Reys and three Spanish Super Cups in the same period. Won Uefa Champions League in 2008-09 and 2010-11 and the corresponding Uefa Super Cups and the Fifa Club World Cups.
  • With 17 club trophies – 14 with Barcelona – Keita is easily Mali’s best sports export to Europe. He earned 102 caps for Mali with 25 goals. He played in seven Afcon editions, between 2002 and 2015. 

Maybe Alexander Song was just a wrong buy. Samuel Eto’o, the most high profile and by far the most successful African player for Barcelona, once a crowd darling, left the club with a heavy heart. Likewise Yaya Toure. 
Not many African players have a cozy relationship at the Nou Camp. But Seydou Keita came at the right time, chose the right attitude, put in a good performance, reaped the best.

He is still loved at Nou Camp.
Toure once accused Pep Guardiola of having ‘issues’ with black players. But when Pep graduated from Barcelona B to manage the senior team in 2008, his first major signings included Keita.
Keita had played eight professional seasons in France and just one in Sevilla, but Pep, an addict of class, was convinced.
Bought for €14m, Keita became the first Malian to play for Barcelona and to show how much the club valued him was the €90m release clause – nearly what Real Madrid paid Manchester United for the record acquisition of Cristiano Ronaldo.

Slow start
Of course, with the classy La Masia graduates Xavi and Iniesta, Keita wasn’t guaranteed regular first-team football. But he used every single minute played to bargain for more. And his midfield versatility was a big plus.
In his league debut August 31, Keita replaced Iniesta in the second half of a 0-1 away loss to Numancia but he would play a massive 46 games as Barçelona won the league, Copa del Rey and the Champions League.

It was at Barcelona where Keita scored his first career hat-trick, in a 6-1 thrashing of Real Zaragoza at the Nou Camp October 25, 2009. He scored the first, the third and the sixth goals, assisted by Lionel Messi, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and Iniesta. Ibrahimovic, who had switched Inter Milan addresses with Eto’o, netted two, one assisted by Keita, and Messi scoring the other.

That season Keita played 29 times, starting 23. Barcelona retained the league crown but lost the Copa del Rey in the Round of 16 to Sevilla. They would also lose the European crown following the 3-1 loss to eventual champions Inter in the semis. Barcelona had travelled 1,000km to Milan by bus due to fog messing air transport and Keita, like his tired teammates, did not make an impact against Jose Mourinho’s gritty machine.
Keita played the entire return leg but the 1-0 victory was not enough.

In the 2010-11 season, Keita made more appearances than any other Barcelona player except goalkeeper Victor Valdez, as Barcelona retained the league, lost the Copa final to Real Madrid, but recouped the Champions League, beating Man United 3-1 at the Wembley final.
Despite being a regular, in that final Keita lost his midfield slot to another La Masia graduate Sergio Busquets, only coming on as a late sub for David Villa, who had scored the third goal.
The following season, Mourinho, who had left Milan in 2010 for Real Madrid, finally snatched the league trophy from Barcelona, with a record 100 points, despite Messi’s record 50 league goals.

Chelsea stopped Barcelona in the Champions League semis and winning only the Copa del Rey was sort of inadequate, by Guardiola stands. Feeling the heat, he left. So did Keita, despite having two more years on his contract.
At 32, he had done and achieved his due, turning up over 180 times across all competitions – an average of 45 games per season – for the world’s strongest team then. He had won every medal.

He was silent but influential and when in 2009, Messi failed to score in 0-0 draw against Valencia, it was Keita who defended him.
“He’s human, it is normal that sometimes he is not so good,” he told reporters after training.

In July 2012, Keita joined Dalian Aerbin in the Chinese Super League on a two-and-a-half-year deal reportedly earning €14m per year. He briefly returned to Spain in January 2014, scoring Valencia’s fastest goal – in nine seconds – against Almeria in a 2-2 league draw March 27, 2014.
He was 34 and deemed done, but he signed for AS Roma, playing alongside Mohamed Salah and Nigerian Umar Sadiq. Keita managed 59 appearances across all competitions, before joining El-Jaish in Qatar, before hanging up the boots at 37 in 2017.

Mali legend
“I get goosebumps when speaking of Mali. There is nothing that compares to the joy of giving to a country that is suffering,” Keita is often quoted in interviews as saying.
Keita was born January 16, 1980, in Bamako, the Malian capital, beginning his career at JS Centre, a club owned by his uncle, Salif Keita, another Mali legend. At 17 in 1997, Seydou joined French side Olympique Marseille. 
In 1998, he made his senior international debut as a teenager in an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Ivory Coast. The following year, he represented Mali at the 1999 Fifa Youth World Championships in Nigeria, winning the Golden Ball as the tournament’s best player as Mali finished third.

With 102 caps and 25 goals, Keita is Mali’s best in both regards. He played for the Eagles in seven Afcon editions, between 2002 and 2015. Only Cameroon’s Rigobert Song, Egypt’s Ahmed Hassan and Ghana’s Asamoah Gyan appeared in more finals.

Mali have never won the Afcon – but their best finish – third place in 2012 and 2013 came in Keita’s era. And with 17 club trophies – 14 with Barcelona – Keita is easily Mali’s best sports export to Europe. 
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