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Tribute: Salif Keita, 1970 Africa Footballer of The Year

Salif Keita, the winner of the maiden edition of the African Footballer of the Year award in 1970 is dead.

Keita, a forward in his playing days, was born in Bamako on December 12, 1946. He started his football career in his country with AS Real Bamako and Stade Malien. With the former, which he represented in two different spells, he was always crowned top division champion.

In 1963, at the age of only 16, Keita was selected to play for Mali. He was part of the squad that appeared at the 1972 African Cup of Nations in Cameroon, helping the national team finish second.

In 1967, 20-year-old Keita left for France to join AS Saint-Étienne, where he won three consecutive Ligue 1 titles, including the double in 1968 and 1970. In his last two seasons with Les Verts combined, he scored an astonishing 71 league goals, 42 in the 1970–71 campaign. But the club failed to win any silverware; in 1970, he was voted African Footballer of the Year.

Keita joined fellow league side Olympique de Marseille in the 1972 summer. After the club tried to force him to assume French nationality, he opposed, leaving in the ensuing off-season for Valencia CF in Spain.

In 1976, after three years with Valencia, Keita signed for Sporting Club de Portugal, where he replaced another legendary goalscorer, Héctor Yazalde. In two of his three seasons with the Lisbon club he scored in double digits, winning one domestic cup. He retired at the age of 34, after a couple of years with the New England Tea Men in the United States.

In June 2005, Keita was elected president of the Mali Football Federation for a period of four years. Late into the following year, he was selected by the Confederation of African Football as one of the best 200 African football players of the last 50 years.

Keita died in Bamako on September 2, 2023 at the age of 76.

Adieu Legend!!!

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