Diadie Samassekou

Diadie Samassekou (born January 11, 1996 in Bamako) is a Malian footballer. He plays for Cádiz CF in Spain as midfielder on loan from TSG 1899 Hoffenheim. He also plays for the Mali national football team since 2014.

Diadie Samassékou

Samassékou with Red Bull Salzburg in 2018
Personal information
Date of birth	(1996-01-11) 11 January 1996
Place of birth	Bamako, Mali
Height	1.77 m (5 ft 10 in)
Playing position	Defensive midfielder
Club information
Current team	Cádiz CF
Number	6
Youth career
0000–2015	Real Bamako
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
2015–2016	Liefering	26	(0)
2016–2019	Red Bull Salzburg	83	(1)
2019–	TSG Hoffenheim	79	(2)
2022–2023	→ Olympiacos (loan)	20	(2)
2024	→ Cádiz (loan)	4	(0)
National team‡
2015	Mali U20	9	(2)
2015–2016	Mali U23	4	(0)
2016–	Mali	39	(1)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 25 May 2024 ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 23:36, 6 June 2024 (UTC)

Career

At the age of 11 Samassékou was discovered by the JMG Akademie Bamako football academy. There he went through the different age groups. In 2013 he moved to AS Real Bamako. At his new club he played regularly in the Malian Première Division. He also took part in the CAF Champions League in 2014.

In August 2015 he moved to Austria to FC Red Bull Salzburg. He played for the 2nd league team FC Liefering. He made his debut in September 2015. He came on as a substitute for Xaver Schlager in the 80th minute against Floridsdorfer AC. By the end of the season he had made 25 appearances for Liefering.

For the 2016/17 season he came to the first squad of FC Red Bull Salzburg. He made his debut in July 2016 in the first leg of the second round of the 2016/17 Champions League qualification against FK Liepāja. He played his first game in the Bundesliga in the same month against Wolfsberger AC. In November 2018, the midfielder scored his first goal in the Bundesliga in a 4-0 win against TSV Hartberg. In August 2019, the Malian moved to TSG 1899 Hoffenheim in the German Bundesliga.

He played for his new club for the first time on August 18, 2019 in the league game against Eintracht Frankfurt. In the summer of 2020, Sebastian Hoeneß took over as coach in Hoffenheim and Samassékou was in the starting eleven under his leadership. At the end of November 2021, he scored the first goal for Hoffenheim against RB Leipzig in his 61st Bundesliga game. Hoeneß was replaced by André Breitenreiter in the summer. Under the new coach, Samassékou only played 34 minutes in the first 6 league games. He then left Hoffenheim in mid-September 2022 and moved to Olympiakos Piraeus in Greece on loan. Samassékou returned to Hoffenheim in the summer of 2023. Under new coach Pellegrino Matarazzo he did not play an important role. As a result, he left Germany again on loan in January 2024 and moved to FC Cádiz in Spain.

International

At the age of 18, Samassékou made his debut for the Mali national team in June 2014 in a friendly match against China.

2015, he took part in the U20 African Championship and U20 World Cup with the U20 team. At the World Cup Samassékou and the national finished 3rd.[16] Samassékou started all 7 games for Mali at the tournament. He scored two goals. With the Malian U23 team he took part in the U23 Africa Cup in 2015 and the Toulon tournament in 2016.

Four years after his debut, he played regularly for the senior national team . He was in the squad for the Africa Cup of Nations in 2019. At this tournament, Samassékou scored his first goal for the senior national team against Tunisia. In 2022, Mali and Samassékou failed again in the round of 16 of the Africa Cup of Nations. In his third participation in the Africa Cup of Nations in 2024, Mali reached the quarter-finals, but lost in extra time to Ivory Coast.