Mahamadou Diarra

Mahamadou Diarra (Arabic language: محمدو ديارا) (born May 18, 1981 in Bamako, Mali) is a Malian Football (soccer). A talented defensive midfielder that signed with Real Madrid in the summer of 2006. Diarra has played several international matches for the Mali national football team.

Biography

Diarra started his career with Greece side OFI Crete and Netherlands side Vitesse Arnhem. He played for France club Olympique Lyonnais (Lyon) from 2002 until 2006, winning four Ligue 1 titles. Diarra was compared to top French midfielders like Patrick Vieira and Claude Makélélé. Many people who have worked with him, including former Vitesse Arnhem manager Ronald Koeman, felt that Diarra had the potential to succeed at the highest sporting level, but that he needed to learn how to control his strong temperament.

He was rated very highly by Lyon manager Gérard Houllier, who said that Diarra would not be leaving Olympique Lyonnais cheaply. His €40 million price tag matched the price Chelsea F.C] paid Lyon for Michael Essien in the summer 2005. Real Madrid joined in the race to sign Diarra, along with Manchester United, and on August 18, 2006 Real Madrid reached an agreement with Lyon for €26 million. On August 22, he was unveiled at the Santiago Bernabeu by Real Madrid president Ramón Calderón, and he was assigned the number 6 shirt; Iván Helguera's prior season shirt number.

In the 2006-2007 season, Diarra was a staple player in Real Madrid coach Fabio Capello's 2-defensive midfielder system; however, a string of poor results saw Diarra relegated to the bench in favor of a new system. Guti, a more offensive-minded midfielder replaced him, while Capello favored Brazilian Emerson in the defensive position. By mid-December, Diarra, complaining about lack of playing time, found himself a regular on the Real Madrid bench. In May 2007 Diarra was linked with a summer move to Italian side AC Milan. In the final game of the season, however, Diarra headed in a match-winning goal in Madrid's come-from-behind victory over Real Mallorca. Diarra put in a strong overall performance in the match, which Madrid went on to win 3-1. The victory saw Madrid win La Liga and end its longest trophy drought in half a century.
Diarra's main strength is his workrate and his power in the air, but his only weakness is his temperament.
He was one of Madrid's best players when they won the league. Diarra was supposed to be playing for Mali instead of Madrid in the last match of the season, but FIFA ordered him to play for Madrid in that game.