Football Special Report: EPL Player Profile- Abou Diaby
Diaby is a French born footballer who is originally from Ivory Coast. Diaby currently plays for Arsenal F.C in England, as a box to box central midfielder and his traits include being proficient in attack as well as in defence. Diaby stands tall at 6 ft 3 inches and because of his tough physical structure, he has been compared by Arsenal’s manager to Patrick Viera. Viera, himself spent the best time of his football career at Arsenal, Patrick also played for France in the 2006 FIFA World Cup.
Arsene Wenger said in August of 2009 that, Diaby’s ability to win the ball back is quite similar to Patrick Viera. He also 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 a 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.
Diaby 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 more during the first half of the 2005-2006 season.
The skilful midfielder joined Arsenal in 2006 from Auxerre. Arsenal’s French manager Arsene Wenger was quite impressed with his displays for Auxerre and this prompted him to make a move for his 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 onto 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.
However, 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 the match 1-0.
Diaby is seen by many Arsenal fans as a player for the future because he is still a young player. Given his skills on the ball and his immense talent and position sense, Diaby is one for the future and is soon going to be a permanent fixture in the Arsenal F.C starting line-up.
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