Keita Balde Diao was born on March 8, 1995 in Arbùcies, Girona. 26 years later, the young man who stood out in Catalan football is one of the new kings of African football. Of Senegalese parents, Keita was able to play for Spain, but decided to defend his family’s nation. Its roots. Some that since yesterday can boast that they are bathed in gold.
This Sunday, Senegal beat Egypt in the final of the Africa Cup of Nations. Penalties decided the title. First, the one that failed Sadio Mané and in the shootout, the one that the Liverpool striker himself converted to give the title to the Leones de la Teranga. The first of a golden generation that Keita is a part of. “I decided to play for Senegal because of my parents’ roots. To see my parents smile and to make them feel more proud of me. Seeing me play for their country despite being born in Spain. That dream of my family is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I have never doubted and every day I am happier. Making so many people happy is a source of pride,” he assured in an interview with this newspaper in April 2020.
Although he made his debut as a starter against Zimbabwe and only enjoyed one minute against Guinea, Keita Baldé celebrated unleashed the triumph of his team and with his team. Mendy, Mané, Koulibaly, Sarr, Gueye, Dia… and Aliou Cissé, the ‘commander’ who has guided them to victory. One that Keita dreamed of since he started at the Damm.
The prolific academy of Catalan football was his home before moving to La Masia. Barcelona captured Keita’s talent in 2004 where he climbed up to the sub-16. A disciplinary problem ended in assignment to Cornellá. What at first was a problem, today he remembers it as a lesson, assuring that “he learned a lot when he left Barça”.
Upon his return, he began his international adventure at Lazio, where he arrived as a youth, to go through Monaco, Inter, Sampdoria and now, Cagliari. An experience that has helped him to discover different ways of understanding football, but also to learn different cultures and handle several languages without any problem, mixing his Spanish with a particular Italian accent.
There he won the Super Cup with Lazio. TO Today, this medal adds to his record the most special title of his career, the 2022 African Cup. The best news before trying to sneak into the list for the next challenge: to beat Egypt again and close their place in the World Cup in Qatar. This would be the second of his career after playing the previous one in Russia in 2018.
Before that, they will have to save Cagliari’s place in Serie A as a partner above João Pedro in Walter Mazzarri’s 3-5-2. With three wins from the last five games, Keita Baldé will find himself a Cagliari two points from relegation on his return to Sardinia. There, his partner, Simona, and his two children are waiting for him, who have seen ‘dad’ crowned as the new king of Africa from a distance.
A triumph celebrated in Senegal and in Lleida
The triumph of Keita Baldé and Senegal was celebrated in his country and also in different cities in Spain where thousands of displaced compatriots seek a better future far from home. Parents like Keita’s, who came from Africa looking to get ahead (they had a parlor in their hometown when Keita was a kid) and boys and girls like him, already born and raised in Europe, but interested in their roots and the culture of country of their parents.
If anywhere it was celebrated with even more emphasis, it was in Lleida, where Keita is seen by the local African community as an idol beyond his goals. No fanfare, in the spring of 2020, Keita Balde listened to the complicated situation of 200 African seasonal workers who worked during the stone fruit picking season and were forced to sleep on the street in one of the toughest periods of the Covid-19 pandemic. He rushed to help without thinking for a minute.
Although Keita, through the activist Nogay Ndiaye and Sergine Mamadou, offered to pay for hotel accommodation, he encountered real obstacles and excuses. “I wanted to find solutions and not stand idly by before these countrymen of mine who were sleeping on the street. I myself have called them to see what they needed and see what I could do for them,” Keita said in an interview on AS. The footballer, then at Monaco, was following the situation from the Principality and focused on finding a solution to the situation of his compatriots. Food, clothing from a brand that closed… Keita helped with everything he could and pointed out the problem for the future so that it would be the institutions that would get ahead of him. “It comes from many years ago and we hope that in the future everything will be better prepared and this problem will not arise. I wanted to send this message, at this time when many things are happening, to show that it is important to be united and that if you want to help, you help. You have to act and not talk,” he sentenced. Because victory does not define the champion, his actions do. Now, this has followed him on the green. All a golden Lion, to the joy of his brothers and sisters who celebrated at home and around the world.