Dreaming of a cup stunt, Brussels resident Thierno Diallo is a permanent fixture at Francs Borains at the age of nineteen: “I can still learn a lot from teammates like Kévin Vandendriessche or Teddy Chevalier”

Football Cup of Belgium Francs Borains

Thierno Diallo was already in the starting line-up for every match for Francs Borains. “I work really hard here, that’s the only way to survive and move forward.” — © BELGIUM

With a third-to-last place, Francs Borains is certainly not having a top season as a newcomer in the Challenger Pro League. But after a cup victory against Tongeren at the beginning of September, the club from the Borinage can try to perform stunts on the STVV field on Tuesday evening. It is a new milestone in the young but already rich career of Thierno Diallo, who was in the starting line-up for the Hainaut PhD student in the first ten league matches.

Diallo exchanged the promises of Sporting Charleroi last summer for the first team of Francs Borains, but the 19-year-old midfielder is anything but a Hainaut. “I put on my first shoes at Sporting Football Club Haren,” says the Brussels youngster. “After one season with the U11s, I started working at Crossing Schaarbeek.”

Formed at Crossing

From Haren to the Josaphat Park, it is only a few kilometers apart. However, the transition was of great importance for Diallo, because he quickly took big steps at Crossing. Even before his sixteenth birthday, the Brussels native, who was still active with the club’s U16s in the 2019-20 season, was allowed to join the first team. During the 2021-22 season, Diallo then got his chance in the first team of Crossing, which reached the final round for promotion to the second division that season, but was ultimately excluded after the penalty shootout against RUS Binche was disrupted. “That resulted in mixed feelings. On the one hand, I was proud that we have gotten this far, but on the other hand, it is of course a shame that it turned out this way.”

Last season, Diallo was promoted after all. After all, he signed with Sporting Charleroi, where he quickly became a permanent member of the Zébra Élites, the club’s promises that are active in the first national team. “After my debut season I absolutely should not leave Charleroi, but Francs Borains’ project seemed extremely interesting to me. I jumped in with both feet,” said Diallo, who shares the dressing room in the Borinage with experienced players such as Tracy Mpati (31), Kévin Vandendriessche (34), Dimitri Mohamed (34), Teddy Chevalier (36) and Clément Tainmont (37). “I can learn a lot from those men. I work really hard here anyway, that’s the only way to survive and move forward.”

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