Mouloukou Souleyman Diabate (born 21 July 1987), commonly known as Solo Diabate, is an Ivorian basketball player who plays for Petro de Luanda of the

Angolan Basketball League The Angolan Men's Basketball League, (in Portuguese: Campeonato Nacional de Basquetebol em Séniores Masculinos) is the top tier men’s basketball league in Angola. The league was formerly known as BAI Basket, BIC Basket and Unitel Basket, named ...

and the

Basketball Africa League The Basketball Africa League (BAL) is Africa's premier men's basketball league. The league consists of twelve teams, each qualified through their domestic competition, similar to the format of the UEFA Champions League. The league is a joint eff ...

(BAL). He also represents the Ivory Coast national team. With Ivory Coast, Diabate has won two silver medals at AfroBasket tournaments in 2009 and 2021.

Professional career

Diabate has played in the French League since 2006. In his career, he played for

JDA Dijon Basket Jeanne d'Arc Dijon Basket, commonly known as JDA Dijon Basket or simply Dijon, is a professional basketball club from the city of Dijon, France. The club currently plays in the LNB Pro A, the French first tier division. The club has won the Frenc ...

, Chorale Roanne Basket,

SLUC Nancy Basket Stade Lorrain Université Club Nancy Basket, commonly referred to as SLUC Nancy Basket, is a French professional basketball club based in Nancy. The club currently competes in the LNB Pro A, the top league in France, and holds two league titles. S ...

, and BCM Gravelines. In 2015, he signed with Rouen Métropole. In the 2015-2016 season, Diabate was the league's assist leader with 6.5 per game to go with his 10.4 points and 3.5 rebounds per game. On February 16, 2017, Diabate signed with the French team Châlons-Reims, after starting the season with MZT Skopje. On 4 November 2016, he signed with

MZT Skopje Aerodrom MZT Skopje Aerodrom ( mk, МЗТ Скопје Аеродром) is a basketball club based in Skopje, North Macedonia. The club competes in the Macedonian League and ABA League. The club's home ground is Jane Sandanski Arena, but due to small capa ...

. On 13 January 2017, he left MZT Skopje On September 11, 2018, he signed with

SLUC Nancy Stade Lorrain Université Club Nancy Basket, commonly referred to as SLUC Nancy Basket, is a French professional basketball club based in Nancy. The club currently competes in the LNB Pro A, the top league in France, and holds two league titles. S ...

. In 2021, Diabate signed with

Zamalek Zamalek ( ar, الزمالك , ''al zamalek'') is an affluent district of western Cairo encompassing the northern portion of Gezira Island in the Nile River. The island is connected with the river banks through three bridges each on the east ...

to play in the

2021 BAL season The 2021 BAL season, also known as BAL Season 1, was the inaugural season of the Basketball Africa League (BAL). Established as a joint effort between the National Basketball Association (NBA) and FIBA, the BAL is the highest tier continental leag ...

, where they won the first-ever championship of the new league. In August 2021, Diabate signed with

Smouha SC Smouha Sporting Club ( ar, نادي سموحة الرياضي), simply known as Smouha, is an Egyptian sports club based in Alexandria, Egypt. The club is mainly known for its professional football team, which currently plays in the Egyptian Pr ...

to stay in Egypt. On 28 September 2021, Diabate was loaned to Al Ittihad to play in the

2021 Arab Club Basketball Championship The 2021 Arab Club Basketball Championship () was the 33rd season of the Arab Club Basketball Championship. The tournament started on 29 September 2021 and ended on 9 October 2021. The entire tournament was held in Alexandria, Egypt, as all games ...

. He replaced the injured

Corey Webster Corey Jonas Webster (born March 2, 1982) is a former American football cornerback who played for the New York Giants. He was drafted by the Giants in the second round of the 2005 NFL Draft and later won two Super Bowls with the team, both ove ...

. On 10 February 2022, Diabate signed with US Monastir ahead of the

2022 BAL season The 2022 BAL season, also known as BAL Season 2, was the second season of the Basketball Africa League (BAL). The season began on 2 March 2022 and ended with the Finals on 28 May 2022. The group phase was played in the Dakar Arena in Dakar and ...

. He helped Monastir win the championships by winning the

2022 BAL Finals The 2022 BAL Finals was the championship game of the 2022 BAL season, the second season of the Basketball Africa League (BAL). The final was played in the BK Arena in Kigali on 28 May 2022, between Angolan club Petro de Luanda and Tunisian club ...

; Diabate became the first player ever to win two BAL championships. In September 2022, Diabate signed a contract for Petro de Luanda in Angola. He won the 2023 Angolan Cup with the team, as well as the

title.

International career

Diabate was a member of the Ivory Coast national basketball team at the 2007 and

2009 FIBA Africa Championship AfroBasket 2009 was the 25th FIBA Africa Championship, played under the auspices of the Fédération Internationale de Basketball, the basketball sport governing body, and the African zone thereof. At stake were the three berths allocated to Afr ...

. In 2009, he helped the team to a surprise silver medal to qualify for the country's first

FIBA World Championship The FIBA Basketball World Cup, also known as the FIBA World Cup of Basketball or simply the FIBA World Cup, between 1950 and 2010 known as the FIBA World Championship, is an international basketball competition contested by the senior men's nat ...

24 years 4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures. In mathematics Four is the smallest c ...

. On 19 June 2015, Diabate was one of 27 players to be named to the Ivory Coast's preliminary squad for the 2015 Africa Championship by head coach

Hugues Occansey Hugues Occansey (born 18 December 1966 in Moyeuvre-Grande, France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the America ...

. Diabate played with Ivory Coast at

AfroBasket 2021 FIBA AfroBasket 2021 was the 30th edition of the FIBA AfroBasket, a men's basketball continental championship of Africa. The tournament was hosted by Rwanda for the first time. It was originally scheduled to take place between 17 and 29 August 20 ...

in Rwanda and got his second silver medal.

BAL career statistics

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2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...

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, 5 , , 0 , , 18.1 , , .439 , , style="background:#cfecec;", .591* , , .750 , , 1.6 , , 4.6 , , 1.6 , , .0 , , 10.4 , - , style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;",

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeypo ...

† , style="text-align:left;", Monastir , 6 , , 3 , , 25.3 , , .339 , , .190 , , .889 , , 3.2 , , 4.0 , , 1.3 , , .0 , , 8.3

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Diabate, Solo 1987 births Living people ABA League players Anhui Dragons players BCM Gravelines players Champagne Châlons-Reims Basket players Chorale Roanne Basket players Fujian Sturgeons players Ivorian expatriate basketball people in France Ivorian men's basketball players JDA Dijon Basket players KK MZT Skopje players US Monastir basketball players Point guards SLUC Nancy Basket players Sportspeople from Abidjan Zamalek SC basketball players 2010 FIBA World Championship players 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup players Fos Provence Basket players Al Ittihad Alexandria Club basketball players