Ibrahima Baldé

Ibrahima Baldé (born 4 April 1989), known as Ibrahima and sometimes Ibra, is a Senegalese professional footballer who plays for Russian club FC Kuban Krasnodar as a forward.

Club career

Early years / Spain

Ibrahima was born in Dakar. In 2006 the 16-year-old arrived in Argentina after signing for Argentinos Juniors and, the following year, he joined another team in the country, Club Atlético Vélez Sarsfield. He later said of his time in the country: "When I went to Argentina I could never imagine how many troubles and personal insults I would have to experience because of my skin colour there."

In 2009–10 Ibrahima continued his football formation as he joined Atlético Madrid, being initially relocated with its B-side. Due to injuries to the first team's offensive line – Florent Sinama Pongolle had also just been sold – he made his La Liga debut on 2 January 2010, playing the full 90 minutes against Sevilla FC at the Vicente Calderón Stadium in a 2–1 win.

In the same month, on the 17th, Ibrahima scored his first goal with Atlético's main squad, in another home win, 3–2 against Sporting de Gijón: after just five minutes on the pitch, he tapped in Sergio Agüero's saved attempt to make it 3–1.