Moussa Diaby exclusive: Aston Villa record buy ready to sparkle in Premier League spotlight
When Moussa Diaby’s older brother took him to play for the junior team nearest their Paris home at the age of six, he could have had no idea what he was starting.
In the near two decades since, the younger sibling has been on a journey which has taken him from the park pitches of the French capital to the national team, with stops at Paris St Germain, Bayer Leverkusen and now Villa, where he arrived last month in a club record £43million deal.
Sitting down at Bodymoor Heath yesterday morning to discuss that price tag and more in his first newspaper interview since signing, Diaby’s eyes light up most when recalling those earliest kickabouts in the parks – and occasionally streets – of his home city.
“Those are the moments you will remember all your life,” he smiles. “It was football for fun, for amusement, for entertaining ourselves.
“I’ve got four older brothers and the first thing which made me love football was watching them play. That inspired me.
“But those games, playing on the street and in the parks, that joy of playing for fun, dribbling the ball and keeping it away from the opposition, that was great.
“You lived for playing football and forgot everything else.”
Diaby has retained his pure love for the game, even as it has become his profession. The pride in his roots, meanwhile, is demonstrated by his wearing of the No.19 shirt number, a nod to the 19th arrondissement where he grew up and took his first steps in the junior game with Esperance Paris.
Along the way, the simple joy of playing has been joined by a burning ambition and it is the latter which led the 24-year-old winger to the Premier League this summer.
The offer from Villa was not the only one Diaby, who scored 31 goals in all competitions over the last two seasons, had on the table. Al Nassr, of the big spending Saudi Pro League, were offering lucrative terms for him to join them in the Middle East.
