DIABATÉ: 'PEOPLE HAVE FAITH IN ME NOW'

For Bordeaux striker Cheick Diabaté, leaving the family home in Bamako, Mali, for Bordeaux's headquarters at the Chateau du Haillan was no easy step, but the giant striker has found his feet in France's top flight.These days Diabaté is one of the most highly rated forwards in France - and a key man for Bordeaux - but such success seemed a long way off back in 2006, when a naïve 17-year-old first jetted in to France."I was a bit scared," the Mali international admitted to BeIN Sport's The Ligue 1 Show. "I didn't know what was going to happen and I didn't know I was going to cope without my family."

Fish out of waterDiabaté was courted by a host of clubs after top-scoring at the Under-17 Africa Cup of Nations, but his decision to join Lille is one he'd quickly live to regret."I spent the first two weeks crying the whole time," he confessed as he explained how the cultural shock was too much for a young man effectively left to his own devices. "I felt totally alone, and the hardest part was that I didn't speak French. I was in a hotel and I didn't know what anything on the menu meant. They used to give me pasta with raw bloody meat - I'd never seen that before. It wasn't winter, but it felt like it to me because I'd never experienced cold, wet weather before. It was just so weird; I couldn't understand how people could actually want to live like this. Why don't they live in Mali?"Culture clashDiabaté's agent got him a trial at Bordeaux, where things would improve even though, at first, he struggled to see eye-to-eye - quite literally - with youth team coach Patrick Battiston."Before I came to France, my father told me to respect people and he told me above all not to look my elders in the eye when they talk to me. He told me to look down to show my respect," said the powerful striker, whose 1.94m frame means he already has to look down most of the time. 

"I said to Cheick, 'Could you please look at me when I speak to you?'," recounted Battiston. "But he said, 'Where I'm from we don't look adults in the eye'. I said, 'Listen Cheick, I respect you, you respect me... Over here you look at people when they talk to you.'"Team mentalityBattiston and Diabaté began to understand one another, but the former remained unconvinced by the Malian's ability. The powerful forward had obvious athletic qualities, but Battiston felt he was too individualistic and refused to pick him for the reserves, even allowing a disaffected Diabaté to leave for a trial with Le Havre."I've always wanted to score goals," explained Diabaté. "When I played with my big brothers, they put me up front and told me to shoot every time I got the ball.""In training and in games, he thought he had to score or he had failed," continued Battiston. "So there was this selfish side to him and he struggled to play with the others. It wasn't easy at first to make him understand that he can have a good game simply by playing for the team."But the message got through to the Malian: "He spoke to me a lot and explained that I have to give the ball if a teammate is better placed. I needed to learn that." Diabaté went on to score 14 goals during a season-long loan at Ajaccio in 2008-09, and was then given a chance to show off his talent in the Bordeaux first team by Jean Tigana in 2010. Bordeaux were in decline, however, and their new raw, leggy striker became an easy target for disgruntled supporters. "I understand the supporters," said a circumspect Diabaté. "When you play well, the fans are happy and they're behind you. When you don't play well, they're not happy and that's normal." Coming out on top Diabaté has silenced the boo boys emphatically in 2013, scoring 17 goals in his last 23 matches - including a double in the 3-2 French cup final victory over Evian - and is now a key man at Bordeaux."I know that people have faith in me now," he beamed. "That's very important for me, I need to feel that people are counting on me, that people believe in me. I realise now that in my life as a footballer, I'm going to have some difficult moments but also some truly magical moments."Diabaté's recent scoring form compares with the likes of Radamel Falcao and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, but the 25-year-old isn't one to get carried away and he certainly hasn't forgotten where he's come from."When people say Cheick Diabaté is having a tough run, they're wrong," he declared. "I know now that life is full of ups and down. And look, if I only ever experienced ups, that would mean I'm the best player in the world."