Papa Bouba Diop football career journey started with Junior team Ndeffann Saltigue before he went ahead in joining ASC Diaraf of the Senegal Premier League in 1996. He traveled to Switzerland, where he spent a few months with third-tier club Vevev before signing as a professional team for Ligue Nationale A club Neuchatel Xamax in the 2000 close season. In December of the same year, he joined fellow top-flight Grasshoppers, whom he assisted in winning the championship title in his first half-seas... morePapa Bouba Diop football career journey started with Junior team Ndeffann Saltigue before he went ahead in joining ASC Diaraf of the Senegal Premier League in 1996. He traveled to Switzerland, where he spent a few months with third-tier club Vevev before signing as a professional team for Ligue Nationale A club Neuchatel Xamax in the 2000 close season. In December of the same year, he joined fellow top-flight Grasshoppers, whom he assisted in winning the championship title in his first half-season and made his first appearance in UEFA competitions the next. He moved to France in January 2002 to join Lens of Ligue 1 on a five and a half year contract.
During his playing career in England, Diop was nicknamed “The Wardrobe” because of his stature (being 6 feet 5 inches (1.96m) in height). His manager at Fulham, Chris Coleman, described him as a player with “great feet, scores goals, defends well, tackles have got good pace”, and that his “stature and ability” were unique in the Premier League at the time, similar to that of Patrick Viera. Former Manchester United midfielder Paul Scholes described him as one of the most “awkward” players he had played against, and observed that “if you get physical with him you will be wasting your time”.
Papa Bouba Diop died in Paris on 29th November 2020, following a long illness. It was reported by L’Equipe that he had ALS.
