Keita Baldé Diao Biography – Age, Country, Club, Wiki

Keita Baldé Diao was born on 8 March, 1995 in Catalonia, Spain. He is commonly known as Keita, is a Senegalese professional footballer who plays as a winger for Ligue 1 club Monaco.

Although he was eligible to play for Spain, Diao chose to play for his parents’ country, Senegal, being called up by their manager, Aliou Cissé, for the match against Niger, valid for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualification Group K. He made his debut for Senegal in a 2–0 win over Niger as a late sub.

Keita came up through the FC Barcelona’s youth academy. In 2010, he travelled with the Barcelona youth team to Qatar for a tournament, where he played a practical joke by placing an ice-cube in a teammate’s bed.

As a punishment, Barcelona sent the 15-year-old Keita on loan to satellite club UE Cornellà, despite his reputation as a future prospect for the first team. The loan meant Cornellà held the rights to a fraction of Keita’s playing rights. After a season in which he scored 47 goals for Cornellà’s youth side, Diao turned down the chance to return to Barcelona, attracting the interest of Real Madrid and Manchester United.

Baldé fully established himself in the starting lineup in the 2016–17 season, scoring his first goal of the season in Serie A match-day 6 against Empoli at home. On 6 March of the following year, Keita made his 100th Serie A appearance in the 2–0 win at Bologna.

He also played a friendly match with Catalonia national team in December 2015 against Basque Country.

In May 2018 he was named in Senegal’s 23 man squad for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.

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