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Lassana Diarra Biography
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Lassana Diarra (born March 10, 1985 in Paris, France) is a French footballer, who moved to English Premier League club Chelsea from French Ligue 2 side Le Havre for €4 million in July 2005. His predominant position is that of a defensive midfielder, but he has an eye for goal, especially with long shots. He can also play in defence.
Le Havre
Lassana started his career at Le Havre, a French football team currently playing in the Second Division. A standout in his defensive midfield role, his reputation started to grow, and impressive performances saw his selection to the French U-21 squad. Along with the reputation came club interest, and Chelsea became potential suitors. With Claude Makélélé getting ever older Chelsea's wide network of scouts tagged Diarra as the 'new' Makélélé and promptly paid €4m for his services in July 2005.
Chelsea
He immediately became a member of Chelsea's first team squad for 2005-06, but did not get much first team football. His Chelsea debut came in the Champions League in October 2005, when he was given a brief run out as a substitute when Chelsea were 4-0 up against Real Betis. However, he was not expected nor was he expecting to come straight into the side, and has understood that his time is yet to come. Learning behind a master of his position, he has improved throughout the season, showing impressively when playing for the reserve team, which is typically full of younger players. He impressed against Huddersfield Town in the FA Cup third round, winning rave reviews from both managers, teammates, and media sources. Lassana also completed the full 90 minutes in Chelsea's last two games of the season at Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United, as manager José Mourinho rotated his squad.
Diarra was named Chelsea's young player of the season for the season of 2005-06.
In November 2006 news reports linked Marseille as one of the club's interested in signing Lassana Diarra, he could join the French side on loan until the end of the 2006-07 season as Chelsea would like the defensive midfielder to gain more first team experience - having had little opportunities at Chelsea. However, in January 2007 news reports linked Diarra with moves to either Fulham or Newcastle on loan in the January transfer window until the end of the 2006-07 season, but with Chelsea's defensive injury setbacks, Diarra did not go on loan and instead was used in the defense. Diarra has played in Premiership games till full time against Blackburn Rovers, Charlton Athletic and Middlesbrough at right-back, with some success.
International
Diarra has been capped five times for the France U21s. Perhaps his most notable performance came in a Qualifier vs England in November 2005. With the game deep into stoppage time and seemingly destined for extra time (the aggregate score was 2-2), Diarra received the ball in the England penalty area. A seemingly innocuous challenge from Manchester United's Kieran Richardson saw Diarra go down, and a penalty was given. Diarra received much abuse, notably from club colleague Carlton Cole, but Jimmy Briand scored the penalty and France qualified.
source: wikipedia.org
GNU Free Documentation License
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