07 August 2017
Juventus has added another strong piece to their lethal attack on XXX announcing the signing of Senegalese forward Keita Balde on a XXX-year contract from Lazio.
The Spanish-born 22-year-old can play anywhere across the attacking line, though perhaps his most natural position is as a wide-left winger cutting inside to create goals.
Comunicato
CAREER
At just 16 years old, Keita joined Lazio and has remained at the club ever since. The Senegal international made his first team debut playing the final minute in a 3-0 win over Chievo Verona on 15 September 2013. He would make his first start just four days later in the Europa League against Legia Warsaw assisting on the only goal in the 1-0 win.
Keita went on to make 35 first team appearances across all competitions in the 2013/14 season scoring six goals and nine assists all before turning 20 years old. The 2016/17 season was Keita’s best yet with 16 goals on the campaign, tied for eight-most in Serie A including eight in his final five games of the season.
In all, Keita had 110 Serie A appearances with I Biancocelesti adding another 13 in the Europa League and 12 in the Coppa Italia and was named one of the top 100 young players in the world by Spanish magazine “Don Balon” in 2014.
Balde made his international debut for Senegal on 26 March 2016 in an African Cup of Nations qualifier vs Niger and played in all four 2017 African Cup of Nations matches for the African side.
KEITA’S CHARACTERISTICS
A forward who is comfortable playing in any position across the front line, Keita is strong on the dribble, has good positional awareness and makes strong runs into the box. This combination allows him to not only be a player that can cross in balls for players like Gonzalo Higuain, Paulo Dybala and Mario Mandzukic to latch on to, but also a winger who can cut in and find the back of the net himself.
As previously mentioned, Keita had 16 goals in 31 games during the 2016/17 Serie A season, but the advanced stats tell an even bigger story. The forward had 53 successful dribbles, averaging nearly twice the average in Serie A for his position. He also had 59 crosses and 44 chances created which are near the top of his league counterparts.
Benvenuto, Keita!
