Aly Keita

Aly Keita (born 8 December 1986) is a former professional footballer who last played as a goalkeeper for Östersunds FK. Born in Sweden, he accumulated 24 caps for the Guinea national team.

Club career

Early career (2007-2013) Keita started his career at Skiljebo SK, before moving to Syrianska IF in 2007. Just before the 2012 season, Keita left Syrianska IF on a free transfer to Västerås SK.

On 15 August 2016, Keita was attacked by a pitch invader during a game against Jönköpings Södra IF. In the closing of what would have been a 1–1 draw ended with an invader running onto the field and grabbed Keita. He later reported that during the confrontation, he was struck in the temple. After the incident, the 17-year old invader was arrested and the match was abandoned.

On 13 April 2017, Keita played in the 4-1 Swedish Cup final victory against IFK Norrköping. This qualified ÖFK to the second qualifying round of the 2017-18 Europa League. Keita played all qualifier games against Galatasaray and Fola Esch. In the final seconds of the play-off reverse fixture against PAOK, Keita threw himself onto the post, saving a header by the far post to keep the aggregate score at 3-3 and qualify ÖFK to the Europa League on away goals. On 19 October 2017, in a group stage Europa League match against Athletic Bilbao, Keita took a heavy touch on a back pass and slipped upon trying to recover the ball, allowing Aritz Aduriz to score the first goal in a 2-2 match. After finishing second in their group, Östersunds FK were knocked out of the Europa League 4-2 on aggregate in the Round of 32 against Arsenal.

Steady downfall and relegation (2019-2024) After avoiding the relegation play-offs by one place in 2020, ÖFK finished last in Allsvenskan 2021, 18 points below the relegation play-off spot.

At the end of the 2022 Superettan, Keita played in the relegation play-off reverse fixture against Falkenberg. ÖFK narrowly avoided a double relegation to the third tier by winning 3-1 on aggregate.

Drug-impaired driving incident and retirement (2024) On June 20 2024, Aly Keita was indefinitely suspended by Östersunds FK following being suspected of drug-impaired driving and money laundering. Three months later, he was found guilty of drug-impaired driving, and got fired by ÖFK. His money laundering investigation was later dropped.

International career Keita was born in Sweden to a Guinean father and a Norwegian mother. He opted to represent the Guinea national football team in April 2018, and he received a call-up to the national team in October 2018. Keita made his debut for Guinea in a 2–0 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualification win over Rwanda on 12 October 2018.

Career statistics

Club

Division!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals

2010 Division 1 Norra

2011 Division 1 Norra

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2012 Division 1 Norra

2013 Division 1 Norra

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2014 Superettan

2015 Superettan

2016 Allsvenskan

2018 Allsvenskan

Honours Östersunds FK

Svenska Cupen: 2016–17