Lassana Diarra

Le Havre

Diarra's footballing career began at Le Havre, a former French top-flight football team. Outstanding in his defensive midfield role, his reputation started to grow and impressive performances saw his selection to the French under-21 squad. Along with the reputation came interest from other clubs, and Chelsea became potential suitors. With Chelsea's Claude Makélélé getting older, Chelsea's scouts tagged Diarra as the "new Makélélé". Diarra was spotted by Gwyn Williams playing for France in the 2005 Toulon Tournament and initially came on trial, before the club paid £1 million for his services in July 2005.

Chelsea

Diarra was in Chelsea's first team squad in the 2005–06 season, but did not see much first-team football. His Chelsea debut came in the UEFA 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. Learning from Claude Makélélé he played well against Huddersfield Town in the FA Cup third round, winning rave reviews from both managers, teammates, and media sources. He made his league debut when he came on as a substitute for Makélélé on 5 February 2006 in a 2–0 win over Liverpool. He became a bit part player in Chelsea's first team and also completed the full 90 minutes in Chelsea's last two games of the season at Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United respectively, as manager José Mourinho rotated his squad. This meant Diarra ended the season with three league…

Youth team

Diarra won 18 caps for the France under-21s. Perhaps his most notable performance came in the 2006 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification play-offs second-leg match against England at the Stade Marcel Picot in November 2005. With the match several minutes from full-time and seemingly destined for extra time (the aggregate score was 2–2), he received the ball in the England penalty box, where a challenge from Kieran Richardson brought Diarra down. A penalty was given for the foul, and Diarra's teammate Jimmy Briand scored the penalty, shooting the ball past Scott Carson. France won the tie 3–2 on aggregate and thus qualified for the finals to be held in Portugal.

Senior team

Diarra was selected for the senior team by coach Raymond Domenech for a UEFA Euro 2008 qualifier away to Lithuania on 24 March 2007. He started the match, alongside Claude Makélélé and Jérémy Toulalan in midfield, and played the full 90 minutes. He was also selected that year for a friendly match against Austria on 28 March 2007. Diarra's consistent club performances in 2008 resulted in him being picked for the France squad for Euro 2008, ahead of high-calibre players such as Djibril Cissé and Mathieu Flamini. France was eliminated in the group stage of Euro 2008 and Diarra did not feature in any of his country's three group stage matches. Following the international retirement of fellow defensive midfielder Claude Makélélé, Diarra was called up for Domenech's…

Despite being an aggressive, hard-tackling and hard-working player, Diarra has unusually good ball control for a defensive midfielder, and has been praised for his physical strength in defence, as well as his composure, and strong mentality. Although he is usually deployed in the centre of midfield as a ball-winner, due to his energy, tenacity, and tackling abilities, he is also a creative player who can dictate the tempo of his team's play with his tidy and intelligent passing from deep midfield positions after winning back possession; he is also capable of being an offensive threat due to his ability to get forward and score goals, courtesy of his striking ability from distance. Due to his many attributes and versatility, Madrid's La Sexta television commentators refer to him as a "todocampista," or "jack of all trades", and he has also occasionally played in more advanced midfield roles, or as a right back. Jimmy Bullard said on facing Diarra: ‘he was a bit like Kanté. When you look at him you think “I can deal with that, he’s fine. He’s 5”2”, I reckon I can handle this”. Unbelievable. What a player he was.’

Born in Paris to Malian parents, Diarra began playing football at the sports center on Rue Julien-Lacroix in Belleville, the district in which he grew up in the 20th arrondissement of Paris. After having started his youth club career at Paris FC, Diarra was turned down by multiple football clubs as a youngster; Nantes deemed him too "small and lightweight" to succeed at 170 cm and 58 kg (5'7" and 9 stone). He admitted he thought his "football career was over." His next stop was Le Mans UC, where Diarra claimed they "didn't seem to care" about him. He would also play shortly for Red Star 93 from the Paris-suburb of Saint-Ouen-sur-Seine.