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Djimi Traoré
Personal information
Full name	Djimi Traoré
Date of birth	1 March 1980 (1980-03-01) (age 29)
Place of birth	Laval, France
Height	1.91 m (6 ft 3 in)
Playing position	Left back, Centre back
Club information
Current club	AS Monaco
Number	18
Senior career1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1996–1999 1999–2006 2001–2002 2006–2007 2007–2009 2008 2009 2009–	Laval Liverpool → Lens (loan) Charlton Athletic Portsmouth → Rennes (loan) → Birmingham City (loan) AS Monaco	05 (0) 88 (0) 19 (0) 11 (0) 13 (0) 15 (0) 03 (0) 10 (0)
National team2
2004–	Mali	05 (1)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 02:22 AM,1 August 2009 (UTC). 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 20 April 2006. * Appearances (Goals)

Djimi Traoré (born 1 March 1980 in Laval) is a French-born footballer who plays for French Ligue 1 club AS Monaco and for the Mali national team. He plays both the left back and centre back positions.

Contents 1 Club career 1.1 Liverpool 1.2 Charlton 1.3 Portsmouth 1.4 Birmingham City 1.5 AS Monaco 2 Statistics 3 Honours 3.1 Liverpool 4 Notes 5 External links

[edit] Club career

[edit] Liverpool

Traoré started his career at home club Laval before moving on to Liverpool, with Gérard Houllier paying £500,000 for him in February 1999. His career at Liverpool has had some ups and downs — he played for most of the 2002–03 season, deputising for the injured Stéphane Henchoz, having been on loan with French club Lens the previous season.

He spent the 2003-04 season, Houllier's last at the club, in the reserve team, of which he was captain, and almost left Liverpool for their Merseyside neighbours Everton on the 2004 transfer deadline day but remained at Liverpool. He scored his first and what turned out to be only Liverpool goal during this season, in the UEFA Cup against Steaua Bucharest.^[1] Traoré's career appeared to have been revitalised by Rafael Benítez. While the defender had been continually exposed for being poor positionally, and seemed reticent to attack, particularly during the 2004-05 season, he showed more willingness to support the left winger, as well as improving his positional play.

Nonetheless, his mistakes opened him up to a large amount of criticism. Memorably, Traoré scored a bizarre own-goal in the third round of the 2004–05 FA Cup against Championship side Burnley, as he attempted an ill-advised turn and drag-back within his own six-yard box. It turned out to be the only goal of the game and handed Burnley a 1-0 victory over their more illustrious Premiership opponents. Bournemouth fans were devastated as they were due to face the winner of the game.

Despite this, Traoré remained a regular at Liverpool, and eventually made the starting line-up as Liverpool qualified for the Champions League Final that season, against AC Milan. He was poor in the first half of the final, conceding the free kick that led to Paolo Maldini's goal in the opening minute. However, he improved substantially in the second half, and his greatest moment was when a shot from Andriy Shevchenko hit his head and the ball was cleared off the goal-line. Traoré then became the first Malian to win a UEFA Champions League winners medal as Liverpool eventually beat Milan on penalties.

In the 2005-06 season, Traoré found his first team appearances limited, with John Arne Riise and Stephen Warnock also starting regularly at left back. It was to be his last season with Liverpool, and, although he had played some part in Liverpool's pre-season in 2006, he was sold to Charlton Athletic for £2 million on 8 August 2006.^[2]

[edit] Charlton

Traoré was sent off on his Addicks debut on 19 August 2006, after receiving two yellow cards, the latter of which was for hauling down West Ham's Marlon Harewood. This was the fifth time in eight seasons a Charlton player had been sent off on the first game of the season. After only half a season at the Valley, Traoré was allowed to leave the club by new manager Alan Pardew, joining Harry Redknapp's Portsmouth F.C. for a fee believed to be in the region of £1m.^[3]

[edit] Portsmouth

On 13 January 2007, Traoré played his first Premier League game with Portsmouth against Sheffield United. He played nine more games that season, but only played three the following season. On January 18 2008, he joined Rennes on loan. He wore the number 12 for Rennes. Despite impressing while on loan, Rennes were unable to agree a deal to sign him and he has returned to Portsmouth to help in their UEFA cup campaign.

On return, he found himself some-what frozen out at Fratton Park and was expected to be sold in the summer. Due to multiple defenders at the club being injured and the loan return of Lucien Aubey, this left Pompey with only Hermann Hreiðarsson as the only natural left-back at the club. As such, Traoré found himself taking part in most of Portsmouth's pre-season fixtures, albeit without a squad number and only as cover. After impressing with his hard-work and dedication, he was re-installed as part of the first team by receiving the number 32 just before Portsmouth's first match of the new season, the FA Community Shield fixture against Manchester United. He was an unused substitute in the game. Despite this, Djimi failed to make an impact, and with Nadir Belhadj signing a contract his Portsmouth career was at an end.

[edit] Birmingham City

On 10 February 2009 Traoré joined Birmingham City of the Football League Championship on a three-month emergency loan.^[4] He sustained a hamstring injury later the same month,^[5] and finally made his debut for the club in April as a late substitute against Watford.^[6]

[edit] AS Monaco

On 18 June 2009 Traore signed a two-year deal with AS Monaco, moving form Portsmouth F.C. after his loan period had expired with newly promoted Birmingham City F.C. of the Barclays Premier League. ^[7][8]

[edit] Statistics

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Club performance			League		Cup		League Cup		Continental		Total
Season	Club	League	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
France			League		Coupe de France		Coupe de la Ligue		Europe		Total
1997–98	Stade Lavallois	Division 2	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
1998–99			4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	0
England			League		FA Cup		League Cup		Europe		Total
1999–00	Liverpool	Premier League	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	2	0
2000–01			8	0	0	0	1	0	3	0	12	0
2001–02			0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	0
France			League		Coupe de France		Coupe de la Ligue		Europe		Total
2001–02	Lens	Division 1	19	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	20	0
England			League		FA Cup		League Cup		Europe		Total
2002–03	Liverpool	Premier League	32	0	2	0	3	0	11	0	48	0
2003–04			7	0	0	0	2	0	2	1	11	1
2004–05			26	0	1	0	5	0	10	0	42	0
2005–06			15	0	2	0	1	0	5	0	23	0
2006–07	Charlton Athletic	Premier League	11	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	13	0
2006–07	Portsmouth	Premier League	10	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	10	0
2007–08			3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	0
France			League		Coupe de France		Coupe de la Ligue		Europe		Total
2007–08	Stade Rennais	Ligue 1	15	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	15	0
England			League		FA Cup		League Cup		Europe		Total
2008–09	Portsmouth	Premier League	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
2008–09	Birmingham City	Championship	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	0
France			League		Coupe de France		Coupe de la Ligue		Europe		Total
2009–10	Monaco	Ligue 1	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	0
Total	France		42	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	43	0
	England		112	0	6	0	15	0	32	1	165	1
Career Total			151	0	6	0	16	0	32	1	205	1

[edit] Honours

[edit] Liverpool

• League Cup: 2000-01
• FA Cup: 2000-01
• UEFA Cup: 2000-01
• UEFA Super Cup: 2000-01
• FA Community Shield: 2001-02
• Football League Cup: 2002-03
• UEFA Champions League: 2004-05
• FA Cup: 2005-06

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

• Djimi Traoré career stats at Soccerbase
• Profile, stats & pics of Djimi Traoré
• Profile at liverpoolfc.tv
• Profile at BBCSport
• Djimi Traoré on Sitercl.Com
• Djimi Traoré French league stats at lfp.fr (French)

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