Soumaïla Diabaté, yet another Malian prodigy

Plus: updates from HQ and the future of football, financialised

Soumaïla Diabaté, yet another Malian prodigy

This is The Shortlist, your free weekly dispatch of short-form stories from the editorial team at SCOUTED: Tom Curren, Jake Entwistle and Llew Davies.

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SCOUTED HQ

Hey everyone, a few bits of admin before today’s stories and players.

Call for testimonials

First, we’re on the lookout for reader testimonials. Last time we put out a call for reader feedback, dozens of you left us really delightful messages (my favourite, which I use as my desktop wallpaper, read ‘this is seriously my favourite sports website on the internet.’)

However, we didn’t ask you to put a name to your words. So using these lovely messages as testimonials looks like…well, like we made them up. So if you’d like to share why you enjoy reading SCOUTED, please do so using the form below - and leave a name or username if you’re happy for us to use your response to find new readers.

Inside RB Leipzig

As a bank holiday special (hope everyone enjoyed) we published my big narrative essay on the three days I spent inside RB Leipzig. We know a bunch of you read SCOUTED at your desks to avoid doing work ;-), so wanted to make sure you checked this one out if you missed it on Monday.

It’s a sprawling story on the city, its politics, and how Red Bull are trying to engineer a regional empire. One person said it was “one of the best pieces of writing I’ve had the privilege of reading,” which was very nice. Check it out below.

Inside RB Leipzig
Tom Curren heads inside one of the world’s pre-eminent football factories.

Keep tabs on Soumaïla Diabaté

Llew Davies

A fun fact: only Germany, Croatia and Brazil have had more representatives play for Red Bull Salzburg than Mali. That sounds wrong and unusual, but it’s true and exciting. Anyone that has followed the Austrian club over the past decade will be familiar with the likes of Diadié Samassékou, Amadou Haidara, Mohamed Camara, Sékou Koné and Dorgeles Nene.

The next Malian prospect following in their footsteps is Soumaïla Diabaté.

Having moved to Europe from prestigious Malian club Guidars FC in 2023, he has followed the development plan that many do at Salzburg: first, a season at FC Liefering, their second division affiliate that gives them a grounding. Next, a loan to a competitive club in Blau-Weiss Linz. Now, Diabaté is set for a breakout season in the first team.

I love watching Diabaté. He is a dynamo at the base of midfield, a bundle of constant energy that buzzes on both sides of the ball. While small in stature, his skillset packs a sizeable punch: it shows in his bursting mobility, his jabby line-breaking passes, his combative hassling and tackling, and his constant efforts that stretch from first minute to last. My summary of him reads, “a compact, all-action, high-energy midfielder that gets around the pitch to break up play and pass forward.” That says everything you need to know about him.

He is like a supercharged version of Mohamed Camara. The 21-year-old is a step more explosive, that bit more physical and a level sharper than his compatriot, who left Salzburg for AS Monaco.

Diabaté is set for a big campaign at Salzburg. Keep tabs on him and you’ll probably see him in a Big Five League this time next year.

The future of football, financialised

Tom Curren

In the aftermath of accidentally providing 16-year-old Rio Ngumoha with his moment of early-career triumph, Newcastle United quietly announced a new partnership this week: a multi-year agreement with cryptoasset firm BYDFi. (Cue funny tweets asking if they can play up front).

Yes, another one. This chart from last year depicts the ubiquitous nature of these sponsorships among Premier League clubs. Your club’s on it, probably - and if it isn’t, it likely will be one day.

The problem is very few of these companies are registered with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) which regulates these markets in the UK. They’re all, of course, registered in tax havens abroad; BYDFi is incorporated in Seychelles and is not registered with the FCA. This means they are not permitted to undertake FCA-regulated activities - including promoting or marketing their services to UK-based consumers. If you try to sign up with BYDFi in the UK, you are blocked and shown this disclaimer:

The genuinely brilliant investigative platform Josimar has done multi-year research for stories in the gambling space on high-profile Premier League sponsors like Stake, NET88, and DEBET. In fact, in May of this year, Newcastle themselves were warned by the Gambling Commission over their association with FUN88, their front-of-shirt sponsor for six years. FUN88 is owned by TGP Europe, a firm which “surrendered its British licence after an investigation found it had failed to "carry out sufficient checks on business partners" and breached "anti-money laundering rules".” (To be clear: gambling and cryptoasset trading are not the same, and the regulatory bodies are separate entities.)

As of today, there is no precedent for the FCA taking regulatory action against any cryptoasset platform sponsoring a Premier League club. And clubs have been careful to thus-far steer clear of the legal boundaries for a ‘financial promotion’ with an unregistered platform - defined by the FCA as “any invitation or inducement to engage in investment activity communicated in the course of business.”

As BYDFi’s customer base is largely in South-East Asia, as is common with such platforms, these partnerships are designed to boost a club’s reach in markets they’re otherwise not so well-known. The financialisation of football rumbles on, and on. Clubs are now partnering with firms who offer services that local, ‘legacy’ fans legally cannot buy.

In September 2023, the FCA issued a public final warning to 150 cryptoasset firms marketing to UK-based consumers. There is no evidence to suggest BYDFi is among them, or that the FCA considers partnerships with Premier League clubs to itself be enough to trigger regulatory processes. But I find these developments interesting nonetheless. And I’m not suicidal.

That's all for this week. SCOUTED50 is underway for its third year, and Jake's words will return to this newsletter soon.

Thanks so much for your support on all our pieces this week, and our summer at large - we are and remain, immensely grateful.

Tom, Jake and Llew