TIMOTHEE Dieng is no stranger to big games.
The Gillingham midfielder made his senior debut for Brest against Zlatan movic and David Beckham on a day that Paris St Germain celebrateded winning the Ligue 1 title with a 3-1 triumph in 2013.
Four years later, he also featured for Bradford City in front of more than 50,000 fans at Wembley, missing out on promotion to the Championship following a 1-0 play-off final defeat to Millwall.
But, having turned 32 this month, Dieng now appreciates such high-profile occasions don’t come around too often in a typical footballing career.
Depending on yesterday’s results, Gillingham’s top-seven hopes for this term will either have been dashed or preserved going into the final day of the season.
Regardless, the French anchorman, who won automatic motion with Exeter to League pro-
One two years ago and still has a year left to run on his Priestfield contract, remains hungry to taste victory on a big stage.
On wanting to eclipse his experiences against PSG and under the world-famous arch, Dieng said: “My debut was PSG’s last home game of the season and they were already champions. I asked a few of them to swap shirts but they were wearing their new kit for the following season and also wanted to keep them as souvenirs for winning the league.
“It was still a great experience to share the pitch with those kinds of players and did set the bar quite high for my career! But I’m 32 now and know football is full of ups and downs.
“Winning promo-otion with Exeter was the best moment of my career, but it was devastating to lose the play-off final and would be amazing to play in another one. People say winninging at Wembley is the best way to go up and I would like to experience that – hopefully with Gillingham.”
Dieng admits that he would have expected the Gills to be in a stronger league position during the final weeks of the season.
It has been a campaign that had seen the Kent club beat five of the sides filling the top-seven positions going into this weekend’s fixtures and take points
