Salif Keïta Traoré (6 December 1946 – 2 September 2023), known as Keita, was a Malian

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 lea ...

who played as a striker. He was also the first person to receive the

African Footballer of the Year The African Footballer of the Year award, presented to the best African association football, footballer each year, has been conferred by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) since 1992. Samuel Eto'o and Yaya Touré have won the award the ...

award in 1970. He was nicknamed the 'Black Panther'. Which inspired the club

Early life

Like others in

Bamako Bamako is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Mali, with a 2022 population of 4,227,569. It is located on the Niger River, near the rapids that divide the upper and middle Niger valleys in the southwestern part of the country. Bamak ...

, he would grow up poor. So, he decided that he would play

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

in order to escape poverty. During his youth, his incredible talents led him to join

Stade Malien Stade Malien is a Malian professional Association football, football and sports club based in Bamako. One of the two dominant clubs of Malian football, their eastern Bamako training grounds host other sports as well, including a successful bask ...

and Real Bamako.

Club career

Salif Keïta Traoré was born in

, playing in his country for Real Bamako and

. With the former, which he represented in two different spells, he was always crowned Première Division champion. At the first

CAF Champions League The CAF Champions League, known for sponsorship purposes as the TotalEnergies CAF Champions League and formerly the African Cup of Champions Clubs, is an annual football club (association football), club football competition organized by the Conf ...

1965 Events January–February * January 14 – The First Minister of Northern Ireland and the Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland meet for the first time in 43 years. * January 20 ** Lyndon B. Johnson is Second inauguration of Lynd ...

, Stade Malien would lose 2-1 against the Oryx of Douala of Maréchal Mbappe Leppe and the

year A year is a unit of time based on how long it takes the Earth to orbit the Sun. In scientific use, the tropical year (approximately 365 Synodic day, solar days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, 45 seconds) and the sidereal year (about 20 minutes longer) ...

; after that, he would lose another final against Stade d'Abidjan. In 1967, 20-year-old Keita left for France to join

Saint-Étienne Saint-Étienne (; Franco-Provençal: ''Sant-Etiève''), also written St. Etienne, is a city and the prefecture of the Loire département, in eastern-central France, in the Massif Central, southwest of Lyon, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regi ...

, where he won three consecutive

Ligue 1 Ligue 1 (; ), officially known as Ligue 1 McDonald's France, McDonald's for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in France and the highest level of the French football league system. Administered by the Ligue de ...

titles, including the double in

1968 Events January–February * January 1968, January – The I'm Backing Britain, I'm Backing Britain campaign starts spontaneously. * January 5 – Prague Spring: Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Cze ...

and

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 1970 Tonghai earthquake, Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli ...

. In his last two seasons with ''Les Verts'' combined, he scored an astonishing 71 league goals – 42 alone in the 1970–71 campaign – but the team failed to win any silverware; in 1970, he was voted

. He would also act in a film later on in his life about it. Keita joined fellow league side

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

in the 1972 summer. After the club tried to force him to assume French nationality he opposed, leaving in the ensuing off-season for

Valencia Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

in Spain. Spanish newspapers were accused of racism when one headline read ''El Valencia va a por alemanes y vuelve con un negro'' ("Valencia goes out to buy Germans and comes back with a black man"), but he was always loved during his spell at the club, netting in his debut with the ''Che'', a 2–1

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

home win against Real Oviedo, and being eventually nicknamed ''La perla negra de Malí'' (The black pearl of Mali); he complained, however, that he was constantly played out of position. In 1976, after three years with Valencia, Keita signed for

Sporting CP Sporting Clube de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP or simply Sporting (particularly within Portugal), or as Sporting Lisbon in other countries,

, where he replaced another legendary goalscorer, Héctor Yazalde. In two of his three seasons with the

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

side, he scored in double digits, winning one domestic cup. He retired at the age of 34, after a couple of years with Greater Boston area-based New England Tea Men, in the United States.

International career

In 1963, at the age of only 16, Keita was selected to play for

Mali Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the List of African countries by area, eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over . The country is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east b ...

. He was part of the squad that appeared at the 1972 African Cup of Nations in Cameroon, helping the national team finish second. In June 2005, Keita was elected president of the

Malian Football Federation The Malian Football Federation () is the governing body of football in Mali. Founded in 1960, it joined the Confederation of African Football, CAF in 1963 and has been affiliated with FIFA since 1964. Its first general secretary was Garan Fabou K ...

for a period of four years. Late into the following year, he was selected by the

Confederation of African Football The Confederation of African Football (CAF) is the administrative and controlling body for association football, beach soccer, and futsal in Africa. It was established on 8 February 1957 at the ''Grand Hotel'' in Khartoum, Sudan. At the FIFA Co ...

as one of the best 200 African football players of the last 50 years.

Personal life

Keita's nephew, Seydou Keita, was also a footballer. He also played some years in France, and later represented, with great team and individual success,

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

. Like his uncle, he played for

, having a brief stint in 2014. Mohamed Sissoko, who played namely for Valencia,

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

and

Juventus Juventus Football Club (; from , ), commonly known as Juventus or colloquially as Juve (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Turin, Piedmont, who compete in Serie A, the ...

, was also his nephew; both played similar roles as central midfielders; another nephew, Sidi Yaya Keita, was also a footballer and a midfielder, who played most of his career in France with

Lens A lens is a transmissive optical device that focuses or disperses a light beam by means of refraction. A simple lens consists of a single piece of transparent material, while a compound lens consists of several simple lenses (''elements'') ...

. After his

retirement Retirement is the withdrawal from one's position or occupation or from one's active working life. A person may also semi-retire by reducing work hours or workload. Many people choose to retire when they are elderly or incapable of doing their j ...

, he would return to

and invest in businesses and would create his own training center creating talents like Mahamadou Diarra and Seydou Keita who was his nephew. He would also be the president of the

. He also became ambassador for

for life.

Guinea Guinea, officially the Republic of Guinea, is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Guinea-Bissau to the northwest, Senegal to the north, Mali to the northeast, Côte d'Ivoire to the southeast, and Sier ...

n film director Cheik Doukouré used the life of Keita as a starting point for his 1994 work ''Le Ballon d'or''. In 1994, he created the first training center for professional football players in Mali, which bore his name. From 2007, Keita acted as delegated minister of the

Prime Minister of Mali This is a list of prime ministers of Mali since the country gained independence from France in 1960 to the present day. The prime minister heads the Council of Ministers of Mali, Council of Ministers. A total of seventeen people have served as ...

. Salif Keïta died on 2 September 2023, at the age of 76.

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Real Bamako *

Malian Cup The Malian Cup, known as the Coupe du Mali Orange for sponsorship reasons, is the top knockout tournament of the Malien football (soccer), football. The competition is the only one where some of the clubs who won titles are based outside Bamako, ...

: 1963–64, 1965–66, 1966–67 * African Cup of Champions Clubs: runner-up

1966 Events January * January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko. * January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo i ...

Stade Malien * African Cup of Champions Clubs: runner-up

Saint-Étienne *

: 1967–68, 1968–69, 1969–70; runner-up 1970–71 *

Coupe de France The Coupe de France (), also known in English language, English as the French Cup or less commonly as the France Cup, is the premier Single-elimination tournament, knockout cup competition in French football organised by the French Football Fed ...

: 1967–68, 1969–70 *

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 cup, super cups found in many other count ...

: 1967, 1968, 1969 Sporting CP *

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (), also known as Liga Portugal Betclic for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Portugal and the highest level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga ...

: Runner-up 1976–77 *

Taça de Portugal The Taça de Portugal (; ) is an annual association football competition and the premier knockout tournament in Portuguese football. For sponsorship reasons, it has been known as Taça de Portugal Generali Tranquilidade since the 2024–25 seaso ...

: 1977–78; runner-up 1978–79 Mali * African Games: runner-up

Africa Cup of Nations The Africa Cup of Nations, commonly abbreviated as AFCON and officially known as the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons, is the main biennial international men's association football competition in Africa. It is s ...

: runner-up

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, ...

Individual * African Cup of Champions Clubs: Best goalscorer

*French Division 1 Foreign Player of the Year: 1968 *

: 1970 Decorations *

FIFA Order of Merit The FIFA Order of Merit is the highest honour awarded by FIFA. The award is presented at the annual FIFA congress. It is normally awarded to people who are considered to have made a significant contribution to :association football. At FIFA's ce ...

: 1996

References

External links

OM profile
* *

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Keita, Salif 1946 births 2023 deaths Footballers from Bamako Malian men's footballers Men's association football forwards AS Real Bamako players Stade Malien players Ligue 1 players AS Saint-Étienne players Olympique de Marseille players La Liga players Valencia CF players Primeira Liga players Sporting CP footballers North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) indoor players New England Tea Men players Mali men's international footballers 1972 African Cup of Nations players Malian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in France Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Malian expatriate sportspeople in France Malian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Malian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Malian expatriate sportspeople in the United States African Footballer of the Year winners 21st-century Malian people African Games silver medalists for Mali African Games silver medalists in football Medalists at the 1965 All-Africa Games