Omar:
I tried to send this to your private email address which I assume is [log in to unmask] I might be wrong though.
Anyway, I culled this from the Boston Globe magazine:
Big-scoring 'Big Mama' gives MLS a marketing spark
By Frank Dell'Apa, Globe Staff, 7/31/2000
6-foot-4-inch, orange-haired striker nicknamed ''Big Mama'' made the MLS marketing department's job a lot easier. Mamadou Diallo stole the show in an otherwise superfluous event called the All-Star game Saturday in Columbus, Ohio.
Most of the talk during the week foused on determining expansion cities (Long Island and Philadelphia in 2002) and building new stadia (Los Angeles, New Jersey). But the lifeblood of professional sports - star players - cannot be manufactured.
And Diallo proved he is that special kind of performer. Actually, Diallo has been proving that all season. He scored 16 goals in the first 16 games for the Tampa Bay Mutiny and leads Major League Soccer with 18 goals.
In the All-Star game, Diallo - coming in after halftime - displayed agility and speed, an excellent touch, and lethal finishing instincts. Considering that Diallo was also the biggest player on the field (along with Chicago goalkeeper Zach Thornton), it seems safe to say the MLS has a larger-than-life attraction.
The only doubt the MLS has had about featuring Diallo was specious - English is his third language, after Wolof and French. But should Diallo never utter another bon mot,the publicity campaign should suffice with images of him touching the ball past Kansas City's Peter Vermes, accelerating around Colorado's Marcelo Balboa, teasing Thornton by dancing past on a step-over move near the end line.
The best players' personalities are exhibited through their style of play and Diallo has plenty of personality.
Diallo showed a good understanding of the frivilousness and seriousness of the All-Star game, accepting the most valuable player trophy and, in a booming baritone voice, telling the Crew Stadium crowd:
''I am Big Mama. And Big Mama controls the field and scores goals. That is what I do.''
That combination of serenity, simplicity, and sincerity outstripped all the nicely polished speeches of the week.
Indeed, Diallo, 28, has the single-minded mentality of a goal-scorer. Before this season, Diallo had 78 goals in 120 matches for MSV Duisburg (Germany), Lillestrom and Valarenga (Norway), St. Gallen (Switzerland), and Zeytenburu (Turkey), plus 21 goals in 46 games for Senegal's national team.
Asked why he chose to conclude a particularly intricate individual move by tapping into an open net instead of passing to Columbus Crew forward Dante Washington, Diallo replied:
''My job is to score goals. And I earned that goal.''
''Mamadou wanted to prove that he should have been a first-team player in this game,'' said Patrick McCabe, Diallo's agent. ''But we had breakfast [yesterday] morning and the All-Star game is in the past for him. He is laser-focused on being the top scorer in the league. He has been a professional for 10 years, so a game like that was not that big of a deal for him. He is not affected by the hype. This is his chance to shine and he said he is going to take it and no one is going to stop him.''
Diallo departed after a minor lower back strain midway through the second half of the East's 9-4 win over the West.
Diallo's success should increase interest in African players, which is the specialty of McCabe, a former Medfield resident who heads the soccer division of Bob Woolf Associates.
''The other African strikers - Junior Agogo [Ghana/Colorado Rapids] and Abdul Thompson Conteh [Sierra Leone/San Jose Earthquakes] - have some of the same qualities as Mamadou,'' McCabe said. ''Physical strikers with that kind of skill are effective in the MLS because American defenders haven't been trained to stop them. I think they will change the game in the US because the defense is going to have to adjust. They are going to have to find quicker defenders.''
McCabe discovered Diallo while placing South African Olympic team goalkeeper Emile Baron in Norway. And McCabe has a list of African prospects, from strikers such as South African Pollen Ndlanya (''well-built but lighter than Diallo and just as skilled and with much the same personality'') to defenders such as Emmanuel Kuffour of Ghana.
''Some African players have not been successful in the MLS, but a lot of Latin players have not made it, either,'' McCabe said. ''Some of the marketing to Latinos is losing its luster and coaches are saying, `Get me guys who can help us win.'''
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