Aly Keita
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 | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Aly Keita | ||
| Date of birth | 8 December 1986 | ||
| Place of birth | Västerås, Sweden[1] | ||
| Height | 1.87 m (6 ft 2 in) | ||
| Position(s) | Goalkeeper | ||
| Youth career | |||
| IK Oden | |||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 2007–2012 | Syrianska IF | 31 | (0) |
| 2012–2014 | Västerås SK | 30 | (0) |
| 2014–2024 | Östersunds FK | 213 | (0) |
| International career‡ | |||
| 2018–2022 | Guinea | 24 | (0) |
|
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 15 July 2024 ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 2 June 2023 | |||
Aly Keita (born 8 December 1986) is a former professional footballer who last played as a goalkeeper for Östersunds FK. Born in Sweden, he accumulated 24 caps for the Guinea national team.
Early career (2007-2013)
Keita started his career at Skiljebo SK[citation needed], before moving to Syrianska IF in 2007.[2] Just before the 2012 season, Keita left Syrianska IF on a free transfer to Västerås SK.[2] He then joined Östersunds FK ahead of the 2014 season.
Promotion and European football (2014-2018)
Keita played most of the games in his second season with ÖFK, where they finished second in the league, securing an automatic promotion to Allsvenskan.[3]
On 15 August 2016, Keita was attacked by a pitch invader during a game against Jönköpings Södra IF. In the closing of what would have been a 1–1 draw ended with an invader running onto the field and grabbed Keita. He later reported that during the confrontation, he was struck in the temple. After the incident, the 17-year old invader was arrested and the match was abandoned.[4]
On 13 April 2017, Keita played in the 4-1 Swedish Cup final victory against IFK Norrköping.[5] This qualified ÖFK to the second qualifying round of the 2017-18 Europa League. Keita played all qualifier games against Galatasaray and Fola Esch. In the final seconds of the play-off reverse fixture against PAOK, Keita threw himself onto the post, saving a header by the far post to keep the aggregate score at 3-3 and qualify ÖFK to the Europa League on away goals.[6] On 19 October 2017, in a group stage Europa League match against Athletic Bilbao, Keita took a heavy touch on a back pass and slipped upon trying to recover the ball, allowing Aritz Aduriz to score the first goal in a 2-2 match.[7] After finishing second in their group, Östersunds FK were knocked out of the Europa League 4-2 on aggregate in the Round of 32 against Arsenal.[8]
Steady downfall and relegation (2019-2024)
After avoiding the relegation play-offs by one place in 2020, ÖFK finished last in Allsvenskan 2021, 18 points below the relegation play-off spot.
At the end of the 2022 Superettan, Keita played in the relegation play-off reverse fixture against Falkenberg. ÖFK narrowly avoided a double relegation to the third tier by winning 3-1 on aggregate.[9]
Drug-impaired driving incident and retirement (2024)
On June 20 2024, Aly Keita was indefinitely suspended by Östersunds FK following being suspected of drug-impaired driving and money laundering. Three months later, he was found guilty of drug-impaired driving, and got fired by ÖFK.[10] His money laundering investigation was later dropped.[11]
International career
Keita was born in Sweden to a Guinean father and a Norwegian mother. He opted to represent the Guinea national football team in April 2018,[12] and he received a call-up to the national team in October 2018.[13] Keita made his debut for Guinea in a 2–0 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualification win over Rwanda on 12 October 2018.[14]
