Mahamadou Diarra  Mahamadou Diarra (born 18 May 1981) is Malian former professional footballer who played as a defensive midfielder. He served as captain for the Mali national team. Diarra started his professional career at Greek club OFI at the age of 17, being signed together with his brother Harouna. After a single season at Greece and being watched by clubs such as Barcelona and Milan, he decided to join Dutch club Vitesse. Diarra made his debut for Vitesse on 13 August 1999. During his tenure at the club, his playing style was compared to Ruud Gullit and attracted interest from Juventus, then coached by Carlo Ancelotti. During the summer of 2002, after receiving offers from many European clubs, Vitesse sold Diarra to Lyon by €4 million, although the player favoured a move to Ajax to rejoin his old manager Ronald Koeman. Diarra played a total of 69 league matches and scored 9 times for the Arnhem-based club. At Lyon, Diarra was a starter in each of his four seasons, playing alongside Michael Essien and Juninho Pernambucano in the midfield and helping his side to win the Ligue 1 in each of those seasons. After Real Madrid head coach Fabio Capello asked club president Ramón Calderón to sign "three players", "Diarra, Diarra and Diarra", Real Madrid joined Manchester United in the race to sign the midfielder. Lyon said that Diarra could not leave and put a €40 million price tag on him. However, on 18 August 2006, Real Madrid agreed a fee of €26 million and four days later, Diarra was unveiled at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium by Calderón and was assigned the number 6 shirt. During the 2006–07 season, Diarra was a staple in Capello's two-defensive midfielder system. He appeared in 33 of Madrid's 38 matches, scoring three times. On 18 June 2007, with Real Madrid needing to win against Mallorca to win the Liga for the first time since 2003, Diarra scored an 81st-minute header to give Madrid a 2–1 lead. In the 84th minute, José Antonio Reyes scored a third goal to ensure Real Madrid were champions. Diarra played a pivotal role in the 2007–08 title defence under new head coach Bernd Schuster, and he established himself as the first-choice defensive midfielder, causing teammate Fernando Gago to play higher upfield.