Ismael Diawara’s fast track to the top continues its course. During the last twelve months, the goalkeeper has joined Degerfors for the Allsvenskan, been recruited to Malmö FF and then made his debut in the Champions League.
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The reward has come in the form of a national team selection to Mali, Africa’s seventh largest country to the surface. The Örebro resident had only been to his parents’ home country on holiday twice before the spring breakthrough in Degerfors. The media first picked up Diawara’s name, before the Malian league discovered the goalkeeper’s statistics in the Allsvenskan – and his background.
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How did they contact you?
– It was African media first that reached me on social media, sick enough (laughs). There was a lot of talk there first, and then the association made the first contact in Degerfors and asked if I was interested in playing for Mali – I absolutely was, says Ismael Diawara.
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Did you have a Malian passport this summer?
– No, I did not have it (laughs). I was given the opportunity to fix one due to my parents’ background.
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Diawara has been on all three gatherings during the autumn and had to make his national team debut in the last match against Uganda (1-0). Mali won the African World Cup qualifier Group E in superior style and is a double encounter from a historic first World Cup participation.
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Diawara was benched for the first time in favor of Ibrahim Mounkoro, a 31-year-old who lives in the Congolese TP Mazembe. He says that the national team captain Mohamed Magassouba justified it by saying that the MFF goalkeeper needed to acclimatize first.
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Diawara’s biggest obstacle has rather been the flights to West Africa. The national team gatherings have been able to start the day before MFF played a match – then Diawara has missed the two initial training sessions due to the long flight time.
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– Last session, we flew for twelve hours, directly to the training plan, and trained. It is not sustainable. I understand if the clubs are not so happy, some players go home a little worn and injured. But it’s fun anyway! A fun experience, says Diawara and is happy after this weekend’s debut:
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– It’s nice that it has been a good period here in the beginning. To get into everything, in how the system and the locker room work, and how it works around the matches. Now you were well ready for the match and all that that entails.
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You do not see yourself as a regular goalkeeper yet?
– I want to play every match. I think I showed a good game last time and he (the league captain) has been happy with me. Of course I want to play.
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Ismael Diawara has still made more matches in Ettan and Superettan than in the Allsvenskan. The Rynninge product has not even had a permanent goalkeeping coach in all his previous clubs, but today has to work with the former MFF goalkeeper Jonnie Fedel.
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– It is a big difference to have one on site every day, which you work so closely with. You have missed that before, because it is a great thing to just be there, says Diawara.
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The loud Fedel has not given the summer acquisition any peace – Diawara says that Fedel is on him “like a bastard”. Fedel and Diawara have constant discussions about how to improve the goalkeeper game, and the latter fears for the day when the MFF icon ends.
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– That’s also what’s cruel about Jonnie, he’s damn straight and honest. You can quarrel or smoke with him, but that’s just because he’s straight and honest. There is no prestige in it or that you go and bull afterwards – it’s just good, it’s refreshing. Inside the video rooms, we have the world’s discussions sometimes, says Diawara.
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If an ordinary goalkeeper jersey in Mali and World Cup games is realistic, it is all the more difficult to poke Johan Dahlin in Malmö FF. Diawara has played five matches, including three in the Champions League and playoffs since August. But does he have the patience to wait out the 35-year-old Dahlin’s contract, which expires in two years, before he takes the first shirt in MFF?
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– I do not think much about it, that he should stop. But for me, it’s just to keep training and not try to think that far ahead, even if it’s difficult. It’s just working day by day. Now I have played a few matches anyway – it’s just to be ready when the chances come and continue to show that I can stand in Malmö in the future. Johan is a fantastic man and a fantastic goalkeeper – I just wish him all the best. It’s nothing I’m sitting and waiting for (laughs), says Ismael Diawara.
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He has also represented Motala AIF, BK Forward, Landskrona Bois and Norwegian Gjövik-Lyn earlier in his career. In this year’s Allsvenskan, Diawara has kept a clean sheet three times in 15 matches.
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