Kevin Johnston

Special for IndyStar

WESTFIELD, Ind. – It’s common practice for professional soccer clubs to invite trialists in for the preseason, some of whom have an outside shot to sneak onto the roster. What’s far less common, if not virtually unheard of, is a completely unknown commodity waltzing into an open tryout and making the squad.

That’s precisely what Indy Eleven striker Alioune Diakhate did.

Diakhate wasn’t even a blip on the club’s radar, or perhaps any professional team’s , this past offseason. But the 24-year-old from Dakar, Senegal, showed up out of the blue and impressed head coach Martin Rennie at Indy’s open tryout of more than 100 aspiring footballers in January. Diakhate earned an extended trial for the rest of the preseason. From there, he continued to shine in training and Rennie rewarded him with a roster spot.

“He just showed up to the open tryout,” Rennie explained. “So, he paid his money, he paid for his flight and he flew here from Connecticut. And he just was here, I think it was a Saturday was the first day, so we were watching him, and he did really well like right away. So, we were interested in him and got to know him a little bit, got to know a bit about his personality. And then the next day he also did very well, so we invited him into preseason training at that point. Since then, he’s continued to improve.”

Diakhate’s profile at Transfermarkt.com, which is kind of the bible of soccer as far as keeping track of players’ careers, reads like a blank slate before his arrival in Indy. That’s how obscure his journey to the club was.

Diakhate, who’ll turn 25 in April and holds a green card, toiled in both the semipro and professional ranks in Senegal, Serbia, Lebanon, Spain and Ukraine before moving to Connecticut with his wife and son in 2018. To find potential teams to try out for, he did what any warm-blooded human does in search of information; he took to the internet.

“I don’t have an agent here in the United States,” Diakhate said. “My plan was to play professional and I was looking at websites of all the teams – USL, because in MLS I don’t see tryouts (publicly listed). The first team I tried – I had a lot of teams to go try out for – but the first team was Indy Eleven.

“(I soon realized) I don’t need to go to do other tryouts.”

Diakhate made his Eleven debut late in the team’s last match, a 3-2 win at the Charlotte Independence. While he successfully completed all three of his pass attempts in the brief eight-minute cameo, it wasn’t all gravy. His coach offered up some harsh-but-constructive criticism after the forward’s debut.

“He struggled a lot in that game,” Rennie said. “He didn’t really do his job the way we wanted him to. He kind of didn’t defend right. He tracked to the wrong areas and maybe was at fault for one of the goals.”

To continue getting minutes in Rennie’s rotation, Diakhate will have to round into a more complete player. But Indy’s manager also spoke glowingly of his skill set.

“He’s very strong, very fast, really fit and works very hard,” Rennie added. “So, he’s got a lot of like raw talent, a lot of good physical attributes. We’re just trying to work with him on the technical and tactical aspects of it to try and refine his game. But he does have natural talent.”

Whether he’ll carve out a consistent role off the bench is up in the air, but judging by Alioune Diakhate’s infectious smile and affable personality, he’s loving every minute of his opportunity in Indy.

“I was very excited,” he said of the moment he found out about his spot on the final roster. “It was very nice. I was very happy to hear this.”

The Eleven (1-1-0) will host result-less Hartford Athletic (0-3-0) at 7 p.m. Saturday at Lucas Oil Stadium in their home opener. Diakhate said his focus will be on one thing only Saturday night: an Indy Eleven victory.

“Looking to go and take three points,” he proclaimed.

With a bolstered attack and quartet of former FC Cincinnati standouts, Indy’s 2019 aspirations are those of a USL Championship title contender.

INDY ELEVEN VS. HARTFORD ATHLETIC

Kickoff: 7 p.m., Saturday, Lucas Oil Stadium

TV: WISH-TV.