Forward rejected a lucrative offer from Saudi Arabia to become Aston Villa’s record signing and is now shining under Unai Emery
Wherever Moussa Diaby plays for Aston Villa, he carries happy memories of his childhood on his back. He wears the No 19 shirt, a nod to the 19th arrondissement of Paris, the place he called home as a boy raised in the north-east of the city. “I like the number because I want to show my friends and my family there that I’m always thinking about them,” he says. “I have to say thank you to this arrondissement because I grew up with a lot of people who continue to follow and support me. That is why I will never forget this area.”
It is a shirt number he has worn since joining the then Serie A side Crotone on loan from Paris Saint-Germain as a teenager. He took it at Bayer Leverkusen, where he announced himself as one of the most exciting emerging talents, prompting Villa to make him their record signing in the summer. At PSG, however, the club he joined aged 13, there was a minor hurdle. “I think Lassana Diarra, a big player who also played for Real Madrid, had the No 19,” Diaby says, breaking into a smile. “I was only young and I couldn’t talk about swapping numbers … I just wanted to play.”
About Author
More Stories
Australia v Pakistan: third Twenty20 international – live
‘The Godfather’: fitness guru who breathed fire into Forest’s second coming
The vapid Jake Paul is a note-perfect sports hero for these Trumpian times | Ade Khan