He made the great hours of the Sports Association of Saint-Etienne (ASSE) from 1967 to 1972, six years during which his long silhouette delighted French football with his licked technique and his sharp sense of goal. He contributed to the legend of the Greens to the point of having inspired, in 1968, the emblem of the club: the black panther, a nickname which will not leave him even after his departure from Forez.
Malian Salif Keita died on Saturday September 2, at the age of 76, in a private hospital in Bamako. Everyone mourns the one who was one of the first stars of African football. “The Black Panther is gone” regretted ASSE the same day, in a press release. “Mali loses one of its worthy sons who made Malian football shine on the national, African and international scene”reacted on Saturday the Malian military government.
Born on December 6, 1946 in Bamako into a modest family of eleven children, Salif Keita was quickly won over by a passion for football. On a vacant lot in Ouolofobougou, a popular district of the Malian capital, he is spotted for his dribbling skills. The young Salif began his career at Real Bamako, and immediately wore, at only 16 years old, the jersey of the Eagles of Mali, which made him the youngest player selected for the national team. He won three consecutive championships in Mali but failed twice in the final of the African Cup of Champions, first in 1965 with the Malian stadium – club where he had been loaned – then with Real Bamako the following year. .
A departure from Mali at 20, hidden in the trunk of a car
His performances, however, caught the eye of Charles Dagher, a Lebanese diplomat stationed in Bamako and fervent supporter of the Greens, who convinced the Saint-Etienne leader at the time, Roger Rocher, to test the nugget. Problem, the young Salif Keita is considered a “national treasure” in Mali, where the authorities oppose his transfer.
But the young man is determined to give an international dimension to his career. In 1967, aged 20, he left his country in a hurry, hiding in the trunk of a car, via Côte d’Ivoire and Liberia, where he was robbed before boarding a plane. He arrives at Orly, alone, without a penny in his pocket. He then asks a Reims taxi driver who is a football fan to take him to Saint-Etienne where the club will pay for the fare – more than 1,000 francs at the time, the anecdote will contribute to the legend of Salif Keita.
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