Mandela Keita

Mandela Keita (born 10 May 2002) is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for Antwerp in the Belgian Pro League, on loan from OH Leuven.

Club career

Keita made his debut for OH Leuven on 21 March 2021 in the away match against Mechelen. Due to injury and lengthy recovery, Keita spent most of the first half of the 2022–23 season on the bench, only featuring sporadically. During the winter 2022–23 transfer window, Keita was therefore loaned out to Antwerp to get more playing time. Antwerp did obtain a buy clause but at 10 million Euro it was extremely unlikely to be activated. At Antwerp, Keita did feature regularly and even scored his first professional league goal as Antwerp became league champions for the first time in 66 years. On top of that, at the end of the season Keita was also selected as part of the Belgium U21 squad for the 2023 UEFA European Under-21 Championship. Despite this, the buy clause did not get activated and he returned to OHL in the summer of 2023, where he still had a contract until 2025. Antwerp did however want to continue with Keita and after months of negotiations, and with Keita even appearing again in the OH Leuven shirt, he was loaned out again to Antwerp on 10 August 2023 for a full season, again with a buy clause for a total estimated financial fee of between 7 and 8 million Euro.

International career

Born in Belgium, Keita is of Guinean descent. He is a youth international for Belgium, having played for the Belgium U21s.

Honours

Royal Antwerp

• Belgian Pro League: 2022–23
• Belgian Cup: 2022–23