Lamine Diatta (born 2 July 1975) is a Senegalese former 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 played as a defender. He works as team coordinator of

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

, appointed by head coach

Aliou Cissé Aliou Cissé (born 24 March 1976) is a Senegalese Association football, football coach and former player who is the manager of the Senegal national football team, Senegal national team. Cissé is best known for captaining the Senegal team which ...

in 2015.

Club career

Born in

Dakar Dakar ( ; ; wo, Ndakaaru) (from daqaar ''tamarind''), is the capital and largest city of Senegal. The city of Dakar proper has a population of 1,030,594, whereas the population of the Dakar metropolitan area is estimated at 3.94 million in 2 ...

, Senegal, Diatta moved to France when he was only one year old. Before moving to

Olympique Lyon Olympique Lyonnais (), commonly referred to as simply Lyon () or OL, is a men and women's French professional football club based in Lyon in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. The men play in France's highest football division, Ligue 1. Founded in 1950, ...

in 2004, Diatta played 142 games for

Stade Rennais Stade Rennais Football Club (), commonly referred to as Stade Rennais FC, Stade Rennais, Rennes, or simply SRFC, is a French professional football club based in Rennes, Brittany. They compete in Ligue 1, the top tier of French football, and pl ...

, scoring nine goals in that time. Before his time at Rennes, he was at

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

, but never actually played a game for them. Diatta's first club was

Toulouse FC Toulouse Football Club is French professional football club based in Toulouse. The club was founded in 1970 and currently plays in Ligue 1, the premier division of French football. Toulouse plays its home matches at the Stadium de Toulouse lo ...

. He spent one season there and played 25 games without scoring. In his first year ( 2004–05) with Lyon he played 19 games. During his second year ( 2005–06) at Lyon, he was troubled with injury and only makes 13 appearances also without goals. In August 2006, he left Lyon on free transfer in search for regular team football, settling at

AS Saint-Étienne Association Sportive de Saint-Étienne Loire (), commonly known as A.S.S.E. () or simply Saint-Étienne, is a professional football club based in Saint-Étienne in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France. The club was founded in 1933 and competes in ...

. On 7 March 2008, after a week's trial at Newcastle United, Diatta agreed to a short-term deal until the end of the season after buying out his contract at Beşiktaş J.K. The deal was finally confirmed by the club on 14 March after a week of confusion. He made his first team debut for Newcastle as a substitute in a

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 ...

match against

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially by Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process invo ...

on 5 April but was released on 15 May. Diatta joined

Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, which competes in the . Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, it changed its name to Stoke in 1878 and then to Stoke City in 1925 after Stoke ...

on trial in January 2009. On 20 March, however, he signed for

Hamilton Academical Hamilton Academical Football Club, often known as Hamilton Accies, or The Accies, is a Scottish association football, football club from Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Hamilton, South Lanarkshire who currently compete in the Scottish Championshi ...

on a short-term deal until the end of the season. After just one month, on 25 April, the 33-year-old Senegalese defender left Hamilton to join Al-Ahli Sports Club in Qatar. Without a club since his release from Al-Ahli Sports Club he participated in trials in Singapore without being snapped up by a club. He then joined

Étoile Sportive du Sahel Étoile may refer to: Places ;France * Charles de Gaulle – Étoile, station of the Paris Métro * Étoile-Saint-Cyrice, commune in the Hautes-Alpes department in France * Étoile-sur-Rhône, commune in the Drôme department in France * L'Éto ...

of the CLP-1 in Tunisia. In December 2011 he signed a short-term deal with Championship team

Doncaster Rovers Doncaster Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. The team compete in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club play their home games at ...

, where fellow countrymen

El Hadji Diouf El Hadji Ousseynou Diouf (; born 15 January 1981) is a Senegalese former professional footballer. Throughout his career, Diouf played as a winger or a forward. Having started his professional football career in France with Sochaux, Rennes an ...

and

Habib Beye Habib Frédéric Beye (born 19 October 1977) is a former professional footballer who played as a right-back. He is the manager of Championnat National club Red Star. Born in France, he represented the Senegal national team. He is also a pundit ...

also played for the club.

International career

Being the

's captain, he has played 71 games for his national side, scoring four goals. He also played in all of Senegal's matches in the

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

Style of play

Diatta was the holding force in the centre of

's defence, and is also tough in the air, which provides a threat in attacking set-pieces.

Honours

Lyon *

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 ...

: 2004–05, 2005–06 *

Trophée des Champions The Trophée des Champions (, ) is a French association football trophy contested in an annual match between the champions of Ligue 1 and the winners of the Coupe de France. It is equivalent to the super cups found in many other countries. His ...

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

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:

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Diatta, Lamine 1975 births Footballers from Dakar Living people Association football central defenders Senegalese footballers French footballers French sportspeople of Senegalese descent Senegal international footballers Senegalese expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in France Expatriate footballers in Turkey Expatriate footballers in England Expatriate footballers in Scotland Expatriate footballers in Qatar Toulouse FC players Olympique de Marseille players Stade Rennais F.C. players Olympique Lyonnais players AS Saint-Étienne players Beşiktaş J.K. footballers Newcastle United F.C. players Hamilton Academical F.C. players Doncaster Rovers F.C. players Ligue 1 players Premier League players English Football League players Al Ahli SC (Doha) players Étoile Sportive du Sahel players Süper Lig players 2002 FIFA World Cup players 2004 African Cup of Nations players 2006 Africa Cup of Nations players 2008 Africa Cup of Nations players 2002 African Cup of Nations players Senegalese expatriate sportspeople in England Senegalese expatriate sportspeople in Scotland Expatriate footballers in Tunisia Qatar Stars League players