Aguissa: “My brother is my motivation"

By: Alusine Rehme Wilson  - (AR-WILSON)

Name: Aguissa Diarra

Age:   29

Position: Forward

Date of Birth: 30^th July 1991

Nationality: Malian

Mali’s goal machine Aguissa Diarra posse’s outstanding tackling, dribbling, scoring, and free kick tricks which make her standout. She strongly believes her elder brother is giving her all the zeal she needs to become a professional some day despite the spirit she do picks from her secret admirer, the Balloon Dorr giant, Lionel Messi.

“Each game I play, I want to score and if I don’t score, I will be very sad. My passion, grow up because my elder brother motivates me continually. He wakes me up very early every morning to join him for training which inspires me a lot to train harder and play easy to show extra ordinarily performances at every game to win, she notes.

“My target is not to excel at home and the national team alone but to play professional football” she said after bagging the player of the match award against Gambia 6-0 win, the tournament’s heaviest defeat.

The 21-year-old forward won the 2020 WAFU A’ Women’s championship golden boot award with seven goals, including a hat-trick against Gambia in their tournament’s opener. She won the title with two goals ahead of joint runners up Adama Tamba of the Gambia and Malian Senebu Sidibe.

“This is a big achievement for me and women’s football development particularly in Africa. I’m excited to win my first international award, thanks to WAFU and my Sierra Leone fans for the support. My hopes are now high to sign a contract with a bigger club from Europe or elsewhere to see me leave Mali for a while in search of professional glories, Aguissa told Northern Times.

Diarra started playing football in Mali’s capital city, Bamako at age six. While in school she played for the Girls super club until her first transfer from the club was completed with female football giant side, Super Lionnes in 2015.

                         

In her second season with Bamako based first division side Super Lionnes, she finished behind AS-Mande striker Bassira Toure as the second highest goal scorer with 32 goals in the Malian female elite league and since then she had helped the her side to win several titles.

Her club success open the door for her to progress to Mali Women’s senior  national team in 2018, when she scored against Senegal in a 1-0 win at the UEFA Women’s qualifiers to earn her first senior international debut and goal for her country. She is currently the only striker in the country to have made major appearances at both junior and senior Women’s competitions for Mali.