Ousmane Diabaté continues to impress as Guinea secure AFCON qualifying win

Ousmane Diabaté has taken yet another encouraging step in his development, starting and playing the full 90 minutes as Guinea beat Kenya 1-0 on Thursday night.

Serhou Guirassy’s 32nd-minute goal secured Guinea’s first win of their AFCON 2027 qualifying campaign, helping them bounce back from Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to South Africa.

Diabaté had come on at half-time in that opening defeat, but was handed a place in Paulo Duarte’s starting XI against Kenya and stayed on throughout.

The midfielder, who turned 19 last week, joined Newcastle from Gençlerbirliği in September before immediately returning to the Turkish club on loan for the rest of the season.

A first-team chance next summer?

We’ve written about Diabaté quite a lot lately, but he keeps giving us a reason. His superb volley against Kasımpaşa last month showed some of the quality he was already producing at 18, and he now has a full game in a senior international qualifying win to add to his experience.

Of all the young prospects we’ve brought in, he looks like one of the most promising to us. Being loaned straight back to Turkey makes him easier to lose track of, but his progress deserves the attention.

We wouldn’t be surprised at all to see him involved with Newcastle’s first team during pre-season next summer. If he continues to develop and impresses when that opportunity comes, he could put himself in contention for our matchday squads in 2027/28.