By Aston
September 5 2004

Drissa Diallo, African born, French raised central defender joined Ipswich in July 2003 from Burnley on a free transfer after Town had left administration.

Diallo Profile

• Date Of Birth: 04/01/73
• Postion: Centre Back
• Transfer Fee: Free
• Contract Ends: 31/06/05
• Previous Clubs: Sedan, KV Mechelen, Burnley

Drissa Diallo, African born, French raised central defender joined Ipswich in July 2003 from Burnley on a free transfer after Town had left administration.

Just three days after arriving in England Drissa made his debut in English football against Ipswich Town at Turf Moor in January 2003 for Stan Ternent‘s Burnley side, in those 90 minutes he became a cult hero with Burnley fans and impressed Joe Royle enough to make a move for him at the same time.

After Town exited administration Royle made contact with Drissa and invited him along to watch Ipswich play Derby County at the end of the season.

Drissa: “I was very impressed with his ambitions for the Club. He wants to take Ipswich back to the Premiership and that is where I would love to play my football.

“I knew about Ipswich because English football is shown a lot in Belgium and to play for a club like this one is special for me.

“Although it was difficult to say no to Burnley, I was always going to come here. Everything about the place is so professional the stadium, the pitch, the training facilities. It is all of Premiership standard.

“Now we need to get the Club into the Premiership. That is my ambition while I am here.”.

Diallo made his debut for Ipswich in the 1-1 draw with Reading at Portman road at the start of the 2002/2003 and played well up until the home clash with Wimbledon where a clash with team mate George Santos lead to him being out for four months with knee ligament damage when he returned to the side the following January he was not the same player and was in and out of the squad for the remainder of the season. The start of the 2004/2005 season bought new hope for Drissa, with Fabian Wilnis being out injured Drissa filled in as a right back and did reasonably well.

Drissa has full caps from Guinea and missed out on the chance to represent his county in the 2002 and world cup after the Guinea football association was investigated for corruption charges resulting in Guinea being banned from football for year.

Drissa: “We had already beaten Senegal in the qualifiers and were going well in our group so it was a massive disappointment for everyone in the squad, we have a good team, with players like Bobo and Mo Camara and to miss out on the World Cup in the way that we did was a massive punishment for the country's players and for the supporters as well.

“It was so frustrating, especially when we saw Senegal beat France and then go on and get to the Quarter-Finals. That could have been us.”.

Talk about Town on our message board.