Football in Mali - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

In the West African nation of Mali
Mali
Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...

, Football
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

is played widely and followed avidly. Large professional clubs and international competition draw much popular attention, and the sport is played as a pastime.

Popularity

The most popular sport in Mali is football (soccer), which rose to the level of national obsession when Mali was chosen to host the 2002 African Cup of Nations. Most towns have professional or semi-professional men's clubs which play in one national (professional) league and two regional (semi professional) leagues. While a majority of clubs are based in Bamako

Bamako

Bamako is the capital of Mali and its largest city with a population of 1.8 million . Currently, it is estimated to be the fastest growing city in Africa and sixth fastest in the world...

, the most popular teams nationally are Djoliba AC

Djoliba AC

Djoliba Athletic Club is a Malian football club and one of the two biggest teams in Mali alongside the Stade Malien. The team is based in the capital city of Bamako. It has its headquarters and three training stadia at Complex Sportif Hérémakono, in the Heremakono Quartier...

, Stade Malien

Stade Malien

Stade Malien is a Malian football and sports club based in Bamako. One of the two dominant clubs of Malian football, their eastern Bamako training grounds host other sports as well, including a successful basketball club.-Football club:...

, and Real Bamako, all based in the capitol.

People play football widely, with formal fields in almost every town of any size, and pickup games among children common in a country with few luxuries. Informal games are often played by youths using a bundle of rags as a ball.

Professional game

Men's soccer has so far outpaced the women's game -- or any other sport -- as the focus of public attention as a spectator sport.

History

The French

French colonial empire

The French colonial empire was the set of territories outside Europe that were under French rule primarily from the 17th century to the late 1960s. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the colonial empire of France was the second-largest in the world behind the British Empire. The French colonial empire...

introduced the game to what was then French Soudan in the early 20th century, and the first organised leagues open to Africans appeared in the 1930s. Jeanne d'Arc du Soudan, founded in 1938 by two French-Africans and the missionary Révérend Père Bouvier, borrowed its name from the Senegalese club Jeanne d'Arc Dakar

ASC Jeanne d'Arc

ASC Jeanne d'Arc is a Senegalese football club based in Dakar. It was founded in 1921. They play at the Stade Léopold Sédar Senghor.-Achievements:*Senegal Premier League: 10...

, and was originally a club of mixed race Bamako Metis

Métis

A Métis is a person born to parents who belong to different groups defined by visible physical differences, regarded as racial, or the descendant of such persons. The term is of French origin, and also is a cognate of mestizo in Spanish, mestiço in Portuguese, and mestee in English...

playing against white colonials. A handful of African clubs developed after the Second World War, competing locally and against teams from around French West Africa

French West Africa

French West Africa was a federation of eight French colonial territories in Africa: Mauritania, Senegal, French Sudan , French Guinea , Côte d'Ivoire , Upper Volta , Dahomey and Niger...

, dominated by the clubs of Senegal

Senegal

Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...

. Foyer du Soudan (later Djoliba AC

Djoliba AC

) and JA du Soudan competed in the French West African Cup

French West African Cup

The French West African Cup or Coupe d'Afrique Occidentale Française was a football tournament between clubs of the former French Western African territories....

from the late 40s until 1959, as well as local leagues (Bamako League) and the "coupe du Soudan" (1947-1959).

Domestic league

At independence, the new government reorganised the sport leagues, combining a number of the larger teams with nearby clubs. Most notably, two Bamako clubs fused into teams which still dominate national sport, to become Djoliba Athletic Club

Djoliba AC

and Stade Malien

Stade Malien

de Bamako in 1960. In the first Coupe du Mali

Malien Cup

The Malien Cup is the top knockout tournament of the Malien football.-Winners:*1961 : Stade Malien 3-3 2-1 Djoliba AC *1962 : AS Real 7-1 Sonni AC *1963 : Stade Malien 6-3 Avenir...

, Stade and Djoliba reached the two match final in 1961. Tied 3-3 after the first match, Stade carried the cup 2-1 in the second.

Stade were also the first Malian club to reach the final of the African Cup of Champions Clubs in 1964/5

African Cup of Champions Clubs 1964

The African Cup of Champions Clubs 1964 was the first edition of the annual international club football competition held in the CAF region , the African Cup of Champions Clubs. It determined that year's club champion of association football in Africa....

, losing 2-1 to Oryx Douala

Oryx Douala

Oryx Douala is a football club from Douala, Cameroon, that achieved most of its success in the 1960s.It won the inaugural African Cup of Champions Clubs in 1964 beating Stade Malien on a score of 2-1 in the final, and so becoming the first club outfit from Cameroon to win the title. The have also...

.

The great Salif Keita

Salif Keita (footballer)

Salif Keïta Traoré , known as Keita, is a retired Malian footballer who played as a striker.-Club career:In his country, Keita played for AS Real Bamako and Stade Malien...

brought AS Real Bamako

AS Real Bamako

AS Real is a Malian football club based in Bamako. They play in the top division in Malian football. Their home stadium is Stade Modibo Keïta....

dominance in his time there (1963-1967). He later moved on to France, becoming the first Malian star player in Europe while at AS Saint-Étienne

AS Saint-Étienne

Association Sportive de Saint-Étienne Loire is a French association football club based in Saint-Étienne. The club was founded in 1919 and currently play in Ligue 1, the top division of French football. Saint-Étienne plays its home matches at the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard located within the city...

and Olympique de Marseille

Olympique de Marseille

Olympique de Marseille is a French association football club based in Marseille. Founded in 1899, the club plays in Ligue 1 and have spent most of its history in the top tier of French football. Marseille have been French champions nine times and have won the Coupe de France a record ten times. In...

. At Saint-Étienne, Keita won the African Footballer of the Year

African Footballer of the Year

The African Footballer of the Year award, presented to the best African football player each year, has been conferred by the Confederation of African Football since 1992. An earlier African Footballer of the Year Golden Ball award was given out between 1970 and 1994 by France Football magazine...

in 1970, the first Malian to win the award, and later played in Spain, Portugal, and the United States.

New clubs have appeared, but the three big Bamako clubs have maintained a strangle on Malian football. Every top division league title since 1966 has been won by one of these Stade, Djoliba, or Real, and all but five times since 1961 have these clubs won the Coupe du Mali

Malien Cup

The Malien Cup is the top knockout tournament of the Malien football.-Winners:*1961 : Stade Malien 3-3 2-1 Djoliba AC *1962 : AS Real 7-1 Sonni AC *1963 : Stade Malien 6-3 Avenir...

Overseas players

In a path blazed by Keita, the country has produced several other notable players for French teams, including Jean Tigana

Jean Tigana

Jean Amadou Tigana is a manager and former French international footballer, having played in midfield and managed professional football extensively throughout France, including 52 appearances and 1 goal for the France national football team during the 1980s.-Playing career:Tigana started his...

, and Frédéric "Fredi" Kanouté

Frédéric Kanouté

Frédéric Oumar Kanouté is a French-born Malian footballer who currently plays for Sevilla FC in the Spanish La Liga. On 2 February 2008, Kanouté was named the 2007 African Footballer of the Year and is the first foreign-born player to win it.-Lyon:Born in Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon, Rhône, Kanouté's...

, named 2007 African Footballer of the Year, but the latter elected to play for Mali instead. Kanouté, the biggest Malian star at the moment, currently plays for Sevilla FC

Sevilla FC

Sevilla Fútbol Club S.A.D. is a Spanish professional football club based in Seville, Spain that plays in the Spanish La Liga championship.They are one of the most successful clubs in Spanish football having won a 1 La Liga title, 5 Spanish "Copa del Rey" Cups, 1 Spanish Super Cup and 2 UEFA...

in Spain's La Liga

La Liga

The Primera División of the Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional , commonly known as La Liga or, for sponsorship reasons, Liga BBVA since 2008, is the top professional association football division of the Spanish football league system...

. Mahamadou Diarra

Mahamadou Diarra

Mahamadou Diarra is a Malian footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for Mali national team. He is captain of the national team.-Early career:Diarra started his career with Greek side OFI Crete...

, the captain of the Mali national team, played for Real Madrid

Real Madrid C.F.

Real Madrid Club de Fútbol , commonly known as Real Madrid, is a professional football club based in Madrid, Spain. The club have won a record 31 La Liga titles, the Primera División of the Liga de Fútbol Profesional , 18 Copas del Rey, 8 Spanish Super Cups, 1 Copa Eva Duarte and 1 Copa de la...

for four seasons before moving to AS Monaco FC

AS Monaco FC

Association Sportive de Monaco Football Club are a French football club based in Fontvieille, Monaco. The club was founded in 1924 and currently play in Ligue 2, the second tier of French football. The team plays its home matches at the Stade Louis II located within Fontvieille...

and Seydou Keita

Seydou Keita (footballer)

Seydou Keita is a Malian footballer who plays for FC Barcelona in Spain and the Malian national team. He also holds a French passport.A versatile midfielder, he can operate as both a central or defensive midfielder.-Marseille:...

plays for FC Barcelona

FC Barcelona

Futbol Club Barcelona , also known as Barcelona and familiarly as Barça, is a professional football club, based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain....

. Other notable players currently on European squads include, Mohamed Sissoko

Mohamed Sissoko

Mohamed Lamine Sissoko Gillan is a French-born Malian footballer who is currently playing for the French Ligue 1 team Paris-Saint Germain and the Malian national team. Although he could have elected to play for France internationally, he chose to play for the country of his descent, Mali...

(Juventus), Sammy Traore

Sammy Traoré

Sammy Traoré is a French and Malian football defender, who currently a free agent. He makes good use of the stepover technique, rarely seen in defenders, to maintain possession and also start an attacking move....

(Paris Saint-Germain), Adama Coulibaly

Adama Coulibaly

Adama Coulibaly is a Malian football defender. He was born in Bamako, Mali, and began his career in his local club, Djoliba AC. Coulibaly recently transferred to AJ Auxerre after spending a decade with his former club RC Lens. The transfer fee was priced at 2 million euros...

(AJ Auxerre

AJ Auxerre

Association de la Jeunesse Auxerroise is a French association football club based in the commune of Auxerre in Burgundy. The club was founded in 1905 and currently play in Ligue 1, the top division of French football. Auxerre plays its home matches at the Stade l'Abbé-Deschamps on the banks of the...

), Kalifa Cissé (Reading FC), and Dramane Traoré

Dramane Traoré

Dramane Traoré is a Malian footballer player who plays as a striker for Ukrainian club FC Metalurh Donetsk.- International :...

(Lokomotiv Moscow).

External links

mali.viky.net: Football News from the Malian national press service.

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Popularity

Professional game

History

Domestic league

Overseas players

See also

External links