Andy Alune Diouf (born 17 May 2003) is a French 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

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 club Lens.

Early life

Born in

Neuilly-sur-Seine Neuilly-sur-Seine (; literally 'Neuilly on Seine'), also known simply as Neuilly, is a commune in the department of Hauts-de-Seine in France, just west of Paris. Immediately adjacent to the city, the area is composed of mostly select residentia ...

, Diouf was raised in Nanterre. He started playing football at the age of 6 years, in the nearby La Garenne-Colombes.

Club career

Rennes

Diouf played for the youth teams of Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) and

Boulogne-Billancourt Boulogne-Billancourt (; often colloquially called simply Boulogne, until 1924 Boulogne-sur-Seine, ) is a wealthy and prestigious Communes of France, commune in the Parisian area, located from its Kilometre zero, centre. It is a Subprefectures in ...

, also spending two years at the INF Clairefontaine, before joining the

Rennes Rennes (; br, Roazhon ; Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in northwestern France at the confluence of the Ille and the Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the region of Brittany, as well as the Ille-et-Vilaine department ...

academy in 2015. He made his professional debut for Rennes on 9 May 2021, coming on as a substitute in a 1–1

Ligue 1 Ligue 1, officially known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the French football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. A ...

home draw against his former club PSG.

Basel

On 18 July 2022, Diouf joined

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...

in Switzerland on a season-long loan with an option to buy. He joined Basel's first team for their 2022–23 season under head coach

Alexander Frei Alexander Frei or Alex Frei (born 15 July 1979) is a Swiss professional football coach and a former player who played as a forward. He is currently the manager of Basel. He began his career at Basel, going on to various other clubs in Switzerla ...

. Diouf played his domestic league debut for his new club on 24 July 2022 in the home game in the

St. Jakob Stadium The St. Jakob Stadium was a football stadium in Basel, Switzerland and the former home of Swiss club FC Basel. It was built in view of the 1954 FIFA World Cup, and as well as serving as a club stadium, it hosted several important matches, inc ...

as Basel played a 1–1 draw against Servette. He scored his first goal for his new team on 13 October in the away game in the Tehelné pole stadium as Basel played in the

2022–23 UEFA Europa Conference League group stage The 2022–23 UEFA Europa Conference League group stage began on 8 September 2022 and ended on 3 November 2022. A total of 32 teams competed in the group stage to decide 8 of the 16 places in the knockout phase of the 2022–23 UEFA Europa Conferen ...

against Slovan Bratislava. Diouf was substituted in for

Wouter Burger Wouter Burger (born 16 February 2001) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a central or defensive midfielder for club Stoke City. Burger began his professional career with Feyenoord, making his Eredivise debut in May 2019. after loan ...

in the 64th minute as Basel were 3–1 down and he scored just one minute later. His first shot was blocked, but he headed home the rebound. Just seven minutes later Basel equalised and the game ended in a 3–3 draw. On 2 May 2023, the option to buy was activated, with Diouf signing a four-year contract. But, not quite two months later, the

decided to move back to France. During his one season with the club, Diouf played a total of 60 games for Basel scoring a total of three goals. 34 of these games were in the

Swiss Super League The Swiss Super League (known as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsorship reasons) is a Swiss professional league in the top tier of the Swiss football league system and has been played in its current format since the 2003–04 season ...

, five in the

Swiss Cup The Swiss Cup (; ; ; ) is a football cup tournament that has been organised annually since 1925–26 by the Swiss Football Association. Since 1999 the winner earns the chance to qualify for the UEFA Europa League or the UEFA Europa Conference L ...

, 18 in the

2022–23 UEFA Europa Conference League The 2022–23 UEFA Europa Conference League is the second season of the UEFA Europa Conference League, Europe's tertiary club football tournament organised by UEFA. The final will be played at Fortuna Arena in Prague, Czech Republic. The winner ...

, where the team advanced to the semi-finals and three were friendly games. He scored all three goals in the UEFA Europa Conference League.

Lens

On 30 June 2023, Diouf signed for

club Lens on a five-year contract.

International career

Born in France, Diouf is of Senegalese descent. He is a youth international for France.

Career statistics

Honours

France U23 *

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inau ...

silver medal:

2024 Predicted and scheduled events * January 1 ** In the United States, books, films, and other works published in 1928 will enter the public domain, assuming there are no changes made to copyright law. ***''Steamboat Willie'', Walt Disney's fi ...

Individual * UEFA Europa Conference League Young Player of the Season:

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

*UEFA Europa Conference League Team of the Season:

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Diouf, Andy 2003 births Living people People from Nanterre French sportspeople of Senegalese descent Black French sportspeople French men's footballers Footballers from Hauts-de-Seine Men's association football forwards Ligue 1 players Championnat National 3 players Swiss Super League players Paris Saint-Germain F.C. players AC Boulogne-Billancourt players Stade Rennais F.C. players FC Basel players RC Lens players France men's under-21 international footballers France men's youth international footballers Olympic footballers for France Footballers at the 2024 Summer Olympics Olympic medalists in football Olympic silver medalists for France Medalists at the 2024 Summer Olympics French expatriate men's footballers French expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Expatriate men's footballers in Switzerland