29 Sep 2019
29 September 2019. Since Aspire Academy and Indian Super League club Odisha FC – previously known as Delhi Dynamos FC - signed an exclusive technical partnership to work hand-in-hand to raise the quality of football development in India in 2017, the team of Odisha and their players have been frequent guests at Aspire Academy. Also in 2019, the club returned to Doha to prepare for the upcoming season of the Indian Super League.
Taking a closer look at Odisha’s squad that worked hard on the Aspire pitches to be in the best possible shape for the season kick-off on October 22 against Jamshedpur FC, there was one player, who was much more familiar with his surroundings in Doha than his fellow teammates. Diawandou Diagne, who was part of Aspire Football Dreams and who went on to play in Belgium and Spain, joined the club at the beginning of the season. The first time the 25-year-old defensive midfielder from Senegal was here was 13 years ago, when he participated at the final tests of the AFD-program as a 12-year-old.
“It’s exciting to be back, because Aspire is like a second home for me. I remember meeting Messi here as a teenager and a few years later after joining the second team of FC Barcelona, I got the chance to train with him and other great footballers like Xavi, Pique or Iniesta. That was one of the best experiences I ever had,” he remembers the time his career really took off when he signed for the Spanish giants in 2014, after breaking into professional football at Aspire-owned KAS Eupen.
After the second team of Barcelona was relegated to Spain’s third division he looked for an opportunity to play on a higher level in order to keep his spot in the national team, he returned to Eupen on loan to help them to achieve promotion to the Jupiler Pro League. “In total, I spent seven years at Eupen and I felt it was time for something new. Odisha FC sounded like a very interesting project to me and I am very excited about this new challenge.”
His teammates are also quite delighted about the club’s new arrival, since he can add a lot of experience to the squad. “I have already talked a lot with him about his time in Europe and I am sure he will share more memories over time that can help me in my career,” said Odisha FC midfielder Vinit Rai, who was also part of India’s National Team that recently played 0-0 against Qatar in the 2023 Asian Cup qualifiers.
“It was a tough game and nobody expected such a result against Asian Cup champion Qatar. But we believed in ourselves and put in everything we had. Personally, I think that the establishment of the Indian Super League has helped Indian players to improve, because we have been training under good coaches and some of the best players in the world came to India and shared their experience.”