Abou Diaby

Abou Diaby was born on May 11, 1986 in Paris, France. He started playing football in the CM Aubervilliers club at the age of 8. Then he was spotted by a bigger club, Red Star in the Paris region, but it was finally Paris Saint-Germain who offered him a place in its training center. However, the player decided to join INF Clairefontaine where all the greatest hopes of French football are gathered.

At the same time, he is still linked to PSG with whom he plays in the youth categories, but the club will be slow to send a letter of commitment linking the player to the club and the player therefore leaves for AJ Auxerre as a free agent. He therefore continued his training in his new club and began his professional career in the 2004/05 season, during a Ligue 1 match, a 3-1 victory against Stade Rennais when he was only 18 years old.

Unfortunately for him, the coach at the time of AJ Auxerre did not give him his place in the first team and he therefore decided to leave the French championship to join Arsenal, led by a certain Arsène Wenger, who saw in this young player a midfielder who was already very complete and very promising.

Initially a substitute, the player already showed great maturity in his game, he was a very tall midfielder at 1.91m and very physical. But he was not just a big guy, he was a technical player and exceptionally good in all areas of the game. Wenger saw in him the new Patrick Vieira but even more technical and with a certain fantasy in dribbling.

However, despite a very promising start, his arrival at Arsenal already marked the beginning of the end for the player who was never able to show his full potential. Indeed, in May 2006, he suffered his first major injury in his career after a nasty tackle from Dan Smith, and the player was out of action for a total of 8 months.

Despite his incredible talent, the player suffered a series of injuries season after season. Between the 2007/08 season and the end of his career, the midfielder missed no less than 1,768 days of competition due to injury, or almost 5 years of competition. The player will not lose his place in the heart of Arsène Wenger, who knew the player's potential, so he plays every time he comes back from injury, but always relapses...

His career is undermined by certain repetitive injuries such as strains of the thigh and gluteal muscles, ankle operations, calf problems, ankle problems, and especially a rupture of the cruciate ligament during the 2012/13 season which will forever break his career, the player will miss no less than 96 matches because of this single injury.

In 2015, the player decided to leave Arsenal, physically exhausted, he joined Olympique de Marseille who tried the gamble of repatriating the 29-year-old former French international to France... a total failure, barely 6 games played in 2 seasons and a player again continually injured, he finally decided in 2017 to retire, then aged 31, a total disappointment for a player who had the potential to end up among the best players in history in his position.

Despite all his injuries, the player will have played a few matches with the French team between 2007 and 2012. Adored by Raymond Domenech, the player was part of the French team group for his country's qualifying matches for Euro 2008. And in 2010, he was selected to participate in the 2010 World Cup, Raymond Domenech taking the risk of selecting him despite his worrying physical condition, coming out of injury. Abou Diaby was the type of player who was so good that you couldn't do without him, even for one match and in the fiasco that was the 2010 World Cup for France, he was one of the only good players for his country during the tournament. In 2012, he lost his place due to injuries and the advent of another new Patrick Vieira, Paul Pogba.

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