Ibrahim Ba

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Personal information
Ibrahim Ba
Date of birth	January 12, 1973 (age 34)
Place of birth	Dato, Senegal
Playing position	Left back
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1991-1996 1996-1997 1997-2003 1999-2000 2001-2002 2003-2004 2004-2005 2005-2006	Le Havre AC Girondins de Bordeaux AC Milan AC Perugia Olympique de Marseille Bolton Wanderers Çaykur Rizespor Djurgårdens IF	128 (8) 35 (6) 56 (1) 16 (1) 9 (0) 9 (0) 2 (0) 13 (1)
National team
1997-1998	France	8 (2)
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Ibrahim Ba (born January 12, 1973) is a French professional football player. He usually plays as a right midfielder. Ba was born in Senegal but his family moved to France when he was a child. He always kept his dual nationality, though he elected to play for the France national football team.

[edit] Biography

He started his career with Le Havre AC in 1991, and was transferred to Girondins de Bordeaux in 1996. He won the 1997 Coupe de la Ligue with Bordeaux, and made his French national team debut in February 1997. He was sold to Italian club AC Milan after just one season at Bordeaux, making a dream come true for him. His first season in Milan was to become his best; he played 31 matches and scored one goal. His most memorable moment for the French national team came in the June 1997 friendly match with Brazil in Paris. He took a free kick 35 meters from goal, and his swerving shot forced Brazilian goalkeeper Claudio Taffarel to drop the ball in front of French striker Marc Keller, who went on to score.

Ba was seen as a great talent, but never quite lived up to his promise. To his great dismay, he was left out of France's 1998 FIFA World Cup squad, when France became World Champions on home soil. That might be seen as the beginning of his downfall. Over the subsequent years, Ba did not play much for Milan and went on loan to Italian team AC Perugia, where he broke a leg and had to miss four matches since he had hit an opponent with his head. He underwent another loan deal back in France with Olympique de Marseille. In 2003, he finally left Milan and joined Bolton Wanderers in England. At Bolton, Ba had the distinction of being part of the record of the largest difference between the number of letters in the surnames of two players in a Premiership substitution. This occurred when he replaced Stelios Giannakopoulos during a league game in February 2004. He failed to make an impression at Bolton, and moved on to Turkey after just one season, joining Çaykur Rizespor.

In 2005, he was surprisingly signed by Djurgårdens IF and Ba moved to Sweden. He was a spectacular signing for Djurgården, and caused much interest in Sweden. It was thought that a less prestigious league might bring back Ba's old ability. Djurgården won the league in his first season, but Ba failed to impress fans and commentators and spent a lot of time on the bench. In early 2006, it was decided that his contract would be terminated and he subsequently left Djurgården in January 2006.