English Premier League - Player Profile:
Abou Diaby
Abou Diaby is a well known French international footballer whose parents relocated to France before his birth from Ivory Coast. At 6ft 3inches, Diaby is an intimidating defensive midfielder as his strength and skill allows him
to be proficient in attack as well as in defense. Because of his uncanny physical resemblance, Diaby has been compared to Patrick Viera, the legendary Arsenal defensive midfielder. These comparisons were drawn by Arsenal’s manager, Arsene Wenger in the early
part of 2009-2010 season.
Arsene Wenger said in August of 2009 that Diaby’s ability to win the ball back is quite similar to Viera. He had added that the French national is quite capable of making box to box runs which players find hard to track. Wenger
also differentiated between Viera and Diaby by stating that Diaby is more offensive-minded of the two French midfielders.
He also said that Diaby is a sharp and strong footballer which is perfect to be a premiership midfielder. Diaby was born in Aubervilliers, France and wears the number 2 shirt for Arsenal in the English Premier League.
He started off his football career for his home town club of Aubervilliers but his capabilities soon caught eye of a semi-professional club known was Red Star Paris. He spent only a year at Red Star Paris and when he was just at
the tender age of 13, Diaby signed a youth contract with one of France’s most famous professional football clubs, Paris Saint-Germain.
The French international footballer signed this contract with the Paris club despite being a huge supporter of Marseille F.C. Diaby only spent two years at PSG and went onto join Auxerre in 2002. With Auxerre, Diaby won the Under
16 French national championships. His coach at Auxerre described him as an elegant and a quick footballer.
Diaby signed his first professional contract as a footballer with Auxerre in 2004. He went onto play seven matches for them in the 2004-2005 football seasons and played a further six times during the first half of 2005-2006 season.
The skilful midfielder joined Arsenal in 2006 from Auxerre. Arsenal’s French manager Wenger was quite impressed with his displays for Auxerre and this forced him to make a move for this young compatriot. On 1st of April,
2006, Diaby made his debut for Arsenal against Aston Villa; after he came on to replace Emmanuel Adebayor.
He scored his first goal in his debut match as Arsenal went on to win the match by five goals to nil. However, the 2006 season ended in disappointment for Diaby, as he broke his leg in a match against Sunderland on 1st
of May, 2006.
But, Diaby made a strong comeback and his best season in terms of goals for Arsenal has been the 2009-2010 season. Abou started off the season on the bench for Arsenal but after his team mate, Denilson suffered a back injury, Diaby
broke through to the first team to make some useful appearances. During his run in the first team, Diaby scored four goals but suffered an injury in an English Premier League match against Wolverhampton Wanderers.
The promising French youngster scored again for Arsenal after making his comeback against Aston Villa at the end of December in 2009. Perhaps, Diaby’s most important goal for Arsenal came against their rivals, Liverpool at the
Emirates Stadium when he scored the only goal of the match as the London club won 1-0.
Diaby is seen by many Arsenal fans as a player of the future because he is still a young player. Given his skills on the ball and his immense talent and position sense in the 2010-2011 season, Diaby has emerged as a vital component
of Arsene Wenger machine in place at Arsenal.
In the new English Premier League season, the French midfielder has once again risen to the occasion after having an unspectacular 2010 FIFA World Cup with France in South Africa. His remarkable performances for Arsenal have forced
Wenger to include him more often than not in his team’s starting lineup, something that can only bode well for Diaby’s future in the English Premier League.
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