Abdoulaye Diallo (born 30 March 1992) is a 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 le ...

who plays as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

for club Nancy. He is a graduate of the Clairefontaine Academy and joined Rennes in 2007. Diallo made his professional debut, at the age of 17, on 29 November 2009, in a league match against

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

. Born in France, he represented that nation's under-20 team, before switching to

Senegal Senegal,; Wolof: ''Senegaal''; Pulaar: 𞤅𞤫𞤲𞤫𞤺𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭 (Senegaali); Arabic: السنغال ''As-Sinighal'') officially the Republic of Senegal,; Wolof: ''Réewum Senegaal''; Pulaar : 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 � ...

, representing his parents' country of birth.

Club career

Early career

Diallo began his football career playing for his hometown club

Stade Reims Stade de Reims () is a French professional football club based in Reims. The club was formed in 1910 and plays in Ligue 1, the top level of Football in France, having been promoted from Ligue 2 in 2018. Reims plays home matches at the Stade Aug ...

, joining the club as a youth player. In 2004, he was selected to attend the Clairefontaine academy and spent three years at the facility training at the academy during the weekdays and playing for Reims on the weekend. He was the youngest player in his class and the only one born in 1992. Prior to leaving Clairefontaine, Diallo agreed to join the nationally recognized

youth academy In sporting terminology, a youth system (or youth academy) is a youth investment program within a particular team or league, which develops and nurtures young talent in farm teams, with the vision of using them in the first team in the future if t ...

of Stade Rennais on an ''aspirant'' (youth) contract. Rennes had been scouting the player since 2004.

Rennes

Diallo joined Rennes and was among a host of internationally recognized youth talents the club had comprised. These talents included youth internationals Elliot Sorin, Wesley Yamnaine, Jérémy Helan, who played for

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

in England, Abdoulaye Doucouré, and Axel Ngando. Diallo initially joined the club's under-18 team who were playing in their own league, the under-18 Championnat National. Rennes finished in 4th-place position, missing out on the playoffs. The 2008–09 season saw Diallo earn a place in the club's

Coupe Gambardella The Coupe Gambardella is a French football cup competition held between the under-18s of the French football clubs, organized by the French Football Federation (FFF). The cup is regarded as an opportunity for young hopefuls to showcase their sk ...

team with the club attempting to defend their title from the previous season. In the tournament, the goalkeeper appeared in three matches and conceded four goals. Rennes suffered elimination in the Round of 16 losing to

Le Havre Le Havre (, ; nrf, Lé Hâvre ) is a port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the river Seine on the Channel southwest of the Pays de Caux, very cl ...

. Diallo was promoted to the club's

Championnat de France amateur The Championnat National 2, commonly known as National 2 and formerly known as Championnat de France Amateur (CFA), is a football league competition. The league serves as the fourth tier of the French football league system behind Ligue 1, Ligue ...

team for the 2009–10 season. He made his debut on 15 August 2009, earning a

clean sheet In team sports, a shutout ( US) or clean sheet ( UK) is a game in which one team prevents the other from scoring any points. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketball. Shutouts are usuall ...

in the team's 2–0 victory over

US Sénart-Moissy US Sénart-Moissy is a French football club based in Moissy-Cramayel, France. History It was founded on 24 September 1932 and play at the Stade André Trémet, which has a capacity of 2,500. The color of the club is blue. Notable former player ...

. Diallo appeared in four more matches, before earning a call-up to the senior team on 20 November by manager

Frédéric Antonetti Frédéric Antonetti (born 19 August 1961) is a French professional football manager and former player who was most recently the manager of French club Metz. He previously managed Bastia, Gamba Osaka, Saint-Étienne, Nice, Rennes and Lille. E ...

for their league match against

Le Mans Le Mans (, ) is a city in northwestern France on the Sarthe River where it meets the Huisne. Traditionally the capital of the province of Maine, it is now the capital of the Sarthe department and the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Le Man ...

in place of injured backup goalkeeper

Cheick N'Diaye Cheikh Tidiane N'Diaye (born 15 February 1985) is a Senegalese professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Stade Briochin. Career N'Diaye started his career with Olympique Noisy-le-Sec, a CFA2 (the fifth tier in the French football ...

. Antonetti preferred the 17-year-old ahead of

Patrice Luzi Patrice Luzi (born 8 July 1980) is a French former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. The longest stay in his career was his three years with Liverpool, which came to an end when he was released by the Anfield club in June 2005. ...

and Florent Petit, the third and fourth goalkeeper, respectively. Diallo appeared on the bench in the Le Mans match, with Rennes earning a 2–1 victory. The following week, Diallo was named the starting goalkeeper for the club's league match against

, almost an hour before the match was set to be played, due to an injury picked up by starting goalkeeper

Nicolas Douchez Nicolas Douchez (born 22 April 1980) is a French former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Club career Toulouse In 2005, Douchez signed for Toulouse FC. He played 86 league games for the club before signing with Rennes. Rennes ...

the previous day. Diallo started the match and played the entire 90 minutes in a 1–1 draw, making spectacular saves, including an important save in the 88th minute off a shot by

Bafétimbi Gomis Bafétimbi Gomis (; born 6 August 1985) is a French professional footballer who plays as a striker for Süper Lig club Galatasaray. Gomis played youth football with Saint-Étienne before making his professional debut for the club in 2004, als ...

. On 18 April 2010, Diallo signed his first professional contract, agreeing to a three-year deal.

Gençlerbirliği

On 28 June 2019, Diallo signed with Turkish club Gençlerbirliği.

Nottingham Forest

Following his release from Gençlerbirliği, Diallo joined

EFL Championship The English Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championship for short or the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship purposes) is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the E ...

side

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

on 14 September 2020.

International career

Diallo was called up to the Senegal national team for the first time in March 2015, for the friendly matches against

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

and

on 28 March and 31 March 2015. In May 2018, Diallo was named in the Senegal national team's 23-man squad for the

2018 FIFA World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national Association football, football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awa ...

in Russia. He also participated in the

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

and

2019 Africa Cup of Nations The 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (abbreviated as AFCON 2019 or CAN 2019), known as the Total 2019 Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons, was the 32nd edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the biennial international men's football champion ...

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Rennes *

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 profession ...

: 2018–19 France U19 *

UEFA European Under-19 Football Championship The UEFA European Under-19 Championship, or simply UEFA Under-19 Championship or the UEFA Euro U-19, is an annual football competition contested by the European men's under-19 national teams of the member associations of UEFA. Spain and England ...

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

Senegal *

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 ...

runner-up:

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

References

External links

Abdoulaye Diallo profile
a
staderennais.com
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Diallo, Abdoulaye Living people 1992 births Footballers from Reims Citizens of Senegal through descent Senegalese men's footballers French men's footballers Men's association football goalkeepers France men's youth international footballers Senegal men's international footballers 2017 Africa Cup of Nations players 2018 FIFA World Cup players 2019 Africa Cup of Nations players Ligue 1 players Ligue 2 players Championnat National 3 players Süper Lig players SC Tinqueux players Stade de Reims players INF Clairefontaine players Stade Rennais F.C. players Le Havre AC players Çaykur Rizespor footballers Gençlerbirliği S.K. footballers Nottingham Forest F.C. players AS Nancy Lorraine players Senegalese expatriate men's footballers Senegalese expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Senegalese expatriate sportspeople in England French expatriate men's footballers French expatriate sportspeople in Turkey French expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey Expatriate men's footballers in England French sportspeople of Guinean descent French sportspeople of Senegalese descent